Dar es Salaam. A Dar es Salaam resident on trial for drug trafficking told the High Court on Friday of how he spent the whole day ingesting 90 capsules filled with what prosecutors say is heroin while in Brazil.
Mr Pedro Alfredo Chongo, alias Salum Shaaban, said he swallowed the capsules “to evade tax” in Tanzania. He was arrested in April, 2011, at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) shortly after arriving on a Qatar Airways flight with the 90 pellets in his stomach.
The accused was being cross-questioned by a state lawyer when Madam Justice Zainabu Mruke intervened to pose a few questions on Friday:
Judge: How did you swallow the pellets?
Accused: I just took them the way you take stiff porridge balls (matonge ya ugali)
Judge: How much time did you spend to ingest?
Accused: I spent the whole day to swallow the pellets. I may take one or two and pose for few minutes and take more.
A police officer told the court in September, 2013, that the accused defecated the pellets on 13 occasions over five days; that he developed serious abdominal pain after passing 65 pellets in a police cell at JNIA, and was rushed to Muhimbili National Hospital where he released 25 pellets. But on Friday, the accused maintained that the drugs he swallowed were not heroin, but Fedrine, which he claimed to have been frequently buying in Brazil for his clients in Mozambique, who use them to manufacture antibiotics.
Led by his lawyer, Hajra, Mr Pedro said he had routinely transported Fedrin to Mozambique from Brazil without having to swallow, but he had to ingest the drug when he was coming to Tanzania to evade tax following an emergency trip to attend to his sick mother. “I don’t have a permit to import Fedrin to Tanzania, so I decided to swallow them to avoid arrest and evade tax. These chemicals are not restricted in Mozambique,” he told the court.
When asked to identify the capsules brought in court, the accused said they were not similar in size and colour compared to those he defecated over three days. The accused disowned a cautioned statement in which he had allegedly confessed to have carried heroin.
He also dismissed a report from the government chemist that the drugs he defecated were heroin hydrochloride. Mr Pedro asked the court not to find him guilty as charged. “I do not understand anything as to the offence I am charged with. I have never carried these drugs, so I ask the court to trust me,” he said when winding up defence case.
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