Arrested int'l drug mule implicates 2 - Independent Daily

An Anti Drug Smuggling Unit (ADSU) operation has seen the arrest of suspected drug trafficker, Jean Harel Philippe on Monday.

The ADSU hopes to be able to source more information from this 43-year-old director security company, BodyGuard Limited, over a possible organised drug network.

The traffic was uncovered after a random check on a South African National, Teresa Dolores Niemand, at the SSR airport on January 18, revealed she was carrying drugs in her underwear.

Officers of the Airport Surveillance and Enforcement Unit of the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) Customs Department together with ADSU seized 544.6 grams of heroin with an estimated value of Rs 8 million from the drug mule.

She was randomly picked out by MRA officers after she went through the 'nothing to declare' channel.

Philippe who has already had issues with the law in the past, had his name revealed by Azad Joomun, a taxi driver whose name was in turn revealed by drug mule Niemand.

After Niemand's arrest at the airport, the ADSU mounted an operation with her help to catch any accomplices. Niemand was meant to meet Joomun at Grand Bay after leaving the airport. Joomun came to the meeting as planned and was arrested by the ADSU.

The inquiry had been kept confidential in order not to alert other possible suspects.

The three faced charges under the Dangerous Drugs Act at the Mahébourg district court On Monday and are currently detained by police pending their sentences.

On October 25, 2012 the ADSU had raided Phillippe's house in Grand Bay and secured two Astra guns, six 0.38 mm and seven 0.22 mm live rounds and thirty eight 9 mm rounds. They had also found a metal tin containing a dismantled pistol, a pouch containing twenty three live cartridge 7.62 mm, two holsters, six 0.38 rounds and four parts of a rifle. Philippe was taken into police custody and a charge of illegal possession of firearms and ammunitions was held against. He was already implicated in a case in 2009 where he was charged with extortion.