DUSHANBE, April 3, 2009, Asia-Plus — A group of foreigners – one national of Nigeria, one national of the Republic of South Africa and two nationals of the Philippines – have got various jail terms for drug trafficking.
A court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni recently ruled that the Nigerian national be given 18 years, the national of South Africa 14 years and two women from the Philippines one year each.
A Justice Zubaydullo Mahmoudov, who took in the trial, said that the Philippines nationals had been charged with not reporting the crime.
According to him, the convicts were detained by officers from counternarcotics agency last year. “They were attempting to send 1.6 kilograms of heroin to Spain by international post service DHL. But it seemed to the DHL office employees that the parcel is suspicious and they informed the counternarcotics agency of the parcel and the drug traffickers were detained” the judge said.
Another foreigner was detained in Tajikistan for drug trafficking last month. We will recall that a woman from the Philippines was detained on March 16 on suspicion of trying to smuggle heroin hidden in hundreds of buttons. The woman, carrying up to 3 kilograms of heroin stuffed into 758 buttons and stitched onto 33 bathrobes, was detained at Dushanbe airport, as she prepared to board a flight to Turkey.
