SPDF MEMBER IMPLICATED IN HEROIN DRUG BUST.
Two men appeared before the Court yesterday in relation to possession
of drugs. wo suspects arrested by the NDEA in connection to a heroin drug bust
of 1.2 kilograms were brought before the Magistrate Court yesterday afternoon,
accompanied by their lawyer Basil Hoareau. The two men were remanded into
custody and the court will rule on their bail application today.
Reporters who were present for the hearing with the approval
of the Magistrate Brassel Adeline were later asked to leave after the lawyer
objected to the presence of the media in the room. According to the communiqué received
from the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA), the drugs were “concealed in
a vehicle drive shaft that had recently arrived in the country from Dubai.”
Prior to the court hearing, attempts were made to get
detailed information from the Police, the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA)
as well as the Seychelles Peoples Defence Force where one of the two men are
alleged to be working. Mr. Liam Quinn of the NDEA did confirm that “at least
one of the men worked for the SPDF” and while there are allegations that the
men worked at State House, Ms. Srdjana Janosevic, the Chief Press Secretary
within the Information and Press Department at State House, stated to a
newspaper that the two men had never worked at the State House.
It is to be noted that this is not the first time that
members of the Seychelles Peoples’ Defence Force have been implicated in cases
involving the illegal importation of drugs. Last month, the NDEA arrested
several crew members of the naval vessel Andromache as they returned from an
operation in Madagascar.
The NDEA communiqué
also reported several other arrests and drug seizures, including 13 grams of heroin
recovered at an operation in Les Mamelles, 350 grams of heroin seized from a
consignment concealed in the wing mirror of a truck imported from Dubai, 149 packages
of heroin recovered from a 23-year old male suspect at Anse Royale plus the
discovery of 1,384 cannabis plants at Grand Anse Praslin.
