Police still waiting for test results

THE five plastic packets of white powder found in the Morata sewerage swamp has been tested by a forensic biologist but the police transnational crimes unit are still waiting for the results.
Unit detective Chief Inspector Joel Simatab said protocols had to be observed before “we get the test results to know whether the substance is drug and what type of drug”.
“We will get the results only after the report is completed by the police forensic unit,” he said.
Simatab said there had been so many public speculations on the test results on the suspected cocaine “but there were processes that we have to follow in order to reveal the test report”.
“The test results will come from the assistant commissioner (crimes) for the information to be released to the public,” he said.
The National reported on May 4 that police had recovered the white powder, believed to be cocaine, spewed by a sewer, together with thousands of kina currency notes, into a swamp in Port Moresby on April 11.
A team from the police unit retrieved the drug on May 3 following a tip-off. The suspicious-looking white substance were wrapped with ice-block plastic bags but the residents in Morata were too scared to take them.
Meanwhile, NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Gideon Ikumu said the test results of the suspected drugs could help investigations to progress further.