Senior Resident Magistrate Court sitting at Mkukula Magistrate court in Lumbadzi has on Wednesday jailed a Malawian woman from Zomba, Harriet Namate and a Ghanaian woman from Accra , Sally Adarkwa over dangerous drugs.
Airport police public relations officer Sapulain Lee Chitonde says the court through state prosecutors Mary Nakutepa and Sandra Banda heard that the two were arrested by the Airport Police at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) after committing same crime of attempting to export dangerous drugs called Apomorphine.
According to Chitonde, Harriet was arrested on 6th October,2019 while carrying 7 kirograms of Apomorphine drugs while Sally Adarkwa was arrested on 24th October while carrying 5.2 Kirograms of the same drug.
In their mitigation after pleading guilty, Harriet Namate who was defended by Chimwemwe Sikwese said she is young and productive to this nation and that the quantity of the drugs was not that too much and that she was only being used by some bad people in town while Sally Adarkwa who was defended by Tadala Tembo said she was old and a foreigner hence both asking the court to be soft when passing the judgement.
But Her Worship Cecilia Onsewa when delivering her ruling, conquered with state prosecutors saying both crimes were well planned and that such cases are slowly buying a plot in Malawi and that the drug crimes are commonly being committed by young productive girls who would have helped developing Malawi and that there was no need to be linient.
She then slapped Harriet Namate to three and half years imprisonment with hard labour while Sally Adarkwa to 2 years imprisonment with hard labour effective from the day of the arrest.
Kamuzu International Airport Police is thanking the courts for speeding up the judgements of these drug dealers and the law enforcers are satisfied with the jail sentence.
Malawi Police Services through the Director of Airports Police Securities, Mr.T Chiumbuzo has since maintained the warning that KIA continue tightening security to protect women from the abusers who are using them to export dangerous drugs.
Meanwhile both convicts are expected to be taken to Maula prison.
