admin
Yeukai Karengezeka
Court Correspondent
The Swedish drug mule caught in possession of 3kg of heroin worth $3,4 million at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport was yesterday remanded in custody pending trial after he exercised his right for the court to provide him with a Swedish interpreter.
Harns Arne Ingemar Peterson (71), who is being charged with unlawful dealing in dangerous drugs was denied bail on his initial court appearance two weeks ago.
He appeared before regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje yesterday, who postponed his trial to May 15.
This was after Peterson told the court that he neither spoke nor understood English, hence needed an interpreter.
The State alleged that on April 8, detectives from CID Drugs and Narcotics Harare, received information from a reliable source that Peterson was in possession of drugs which he intended to smuggle to Thailand.
The detectives waylaid Peterson at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in order to intercept him as he checked in.
While at the airport, they went to all airlines’ offices to check which one had been used by Peterson. They then found out that he had been rejected by Qatar Airways for an onward flight since he was not in possession of a visa to Thailand.
The court heard that the detectives also looked for Peterson in the departures hall and identified him through the clothes he was wearing and his passport.
He was with a trolley loaded with two bags; a pink and a black one.
Detectives approached him and requested to search his bags and they seized some brownish powder suspected to be dangerous drugs in a plastic bag stashed in a false compartment created on the pink bag.
Peterson was then taken to CID Drugs Harare offices where preliminary field tests were done on the seized brownish powder and it tested positive for heroin.
Mr Lancelot Mutsokoti appeared for the State.
Online Reporter