Sewer ‘cocaine’ recovered

By GEORGINA KOREI
POLICE have recovered five plastic packets of white powder, believed to be cocaine, spewed by a sewer together with thousands of Kina currency notes in a swamp in Port Moresby’s Morata on April 11.
A team from the police Transnational Crime Unit retrieved the “drugs” yesterday, following a tip-off by informants.
“There were many packets of white-powdered substance ]like cocaine floating out of the sewer with the money but only five were handed over to the police,” a police source told The National.
“We will be carrying out laboratory tests today to determine the content of the white powder substance in the small plastic packets.
“There are still so much to investigate,” he added.
The National front-paged a report on April 11 with pictures of scores of people wading in the Morata 8-Mile swamp looking for money spewed from a sewer outlet.
This happened after a boy, who found bundles of cash, alerted the people that the main sewer was spewing money.
Morata 1 resident Gilbert Goi said the boy found a bundle of notes amounting to K1,800 in the sewer while hunting for birds three weeks ago.
“The boy later found K3,500 flowing out of one of the sewage outlet,” he said.
“After the boy told people in Morata, many flocked to the swamp scavenging for money near the sewer outlet and the swamp.”
Goi said some people found K1,500 and K2,500 bundles while others K3,000, and K5,000 was the biggest bundle found so far.
“The notes were rolled-up and tied with rubber bands and we do not know how much cash have been found.
“Those bundles that the rubber band broke drifted out as loose notes and we cannot work out the amount of money found,” he said.
Last Tuesday, The National reported that the same police team conducted a search in the swamp and the main sewer outlet but they could not find any evidence of drugs.
The police saw two young men who were identified as James and John and interviewed them.
They told the police that the claims were true and they would assist to find a sample of the pack and hand it over to the police.
“The suspicious-looking white substance were wrapped with ice-block plastics that came out with the money but the residents were too scared to take them,” they told police.
They told the police they would help search the sewer for the “packets of white substance” for laboratory tests.
National Capital District Metropolitan Superintendent Gideon Ikumu also confirmed that the notes were real but no one had come forward to claim the money.
“The money found at Morata swamp is real money and it is legal tender with serial numbers,” he said.