Two Bolivian Nationals Arraigned In Court For Drug Trafficking

Aviation Police on Friday arraigned two Bolivian nationals before Entebbe magistrate court for drug trafficking.

The suspects were identified as Choque Condori Emilio aged 24 years and Martinez Villarpando Pedro, 22, both from the South American country Bolivia.

According to police, the two were arrested earlier this month from Entebbe international airport.

Kampala Metropolitan Police said that “The duo arrived in Uganda aboard Ethiopian Airlines from Brazil via Addis Ababa ,but on arrival our Anti Narcotic drugs staff suspected them to be carrying drugs and arrested them.”

They were later taken to Aviation Police Station for observation where they were induced and passed out 100 pellets totaling to 200 pellets of substances suspected to be narcotic drugs.

Police said that the 200 pellets weighed a gross of 2914.82 grams and preliminary tests indicate they were carrying cocaine.

In courts of law, the suspects were charged on two counts of Unlawful possession of narcotic drugs c/s 4(1) and 2(a) of the narcotic drugs and substances control Act 2016 and the trafficking in narcotic drugs c/s 5 of the same Act.

Recently police destroyed impounded drugs worth billions of shillings but traffickers continue to use Entebbe international airport as their conduit.

However, police attributes the unending crime to the weak laws which does not subject culprits to serious punishments.

Suspects when arrested are always fined between one million and five million Uganda shillings of which is affordable to the traffickers.