3 drug mules arrested in Seychelles since Jan. - 2 Ugandans and a Tanzanian national
The suspects were apprehended on February 4 by ANB officers with the assistance of other airport authorities. (Seychelles Nation)
(Seychelles News Agency) - Authorities in Seychelles have arrested three persons arriving into the country in possession of controlled drugs since the beginning of the year, the Anti-Narcotics Bureau said in a press statement on Tuesday.
The ANB revealed that a 42-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman, both from Uganda, were apprehended on February 4 by its officers with the assistance of other airport authorities. The suspects, who arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines flight, had 2.52 kilogrammes of heroin bullets in their stomachs.
The Ugandan man appeared in the Magistrates Court on Monday and was remanded for 14 days while his compatriot will appear in court soon.
A 35-year-old Seychellois mechanic has also been arrested in the same case while the investigation continues.
The ANB added that another man, a 51-year-old Tanzanian man, is also on remand for 14 days. He was arrested with 439.9 grammes of cocaine hidden in his body on January 28, after he arrived on board a Qatar flight from Kenya via Doha.
The President of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, broke the news of these drug arrests to local reporters in an interview on Monday, when he said that he met with Ethiopian ministers to discuss the issue of drug trafficking on the sidelines of the African Union heads of state and government summit.
Ramkalawan said the discussion touched on the fact that there are many people from the African continent coming to Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, on Ethiopian Airlines flights with bullets of controlled drugs in their stomachs and that they need to fight this illegal trade.