AN INDIAN drug dealer has been sentenced to 15 years after he was found carrying seven kilogrammes of heroine at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
Gowda Nabin Chandra (62) was nabbed just before he boarded an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Ethiopia enroute to India.
Chandra pleaded not guilty during trial, arguing that he was not aware that the parcel he was carrying contained drugs.
Harare regional magistrate Donald Ndirowei, however, found him guilty and slapped him with a 15-year jail term and a US$5 000 fine. Failure to pay the fine will attract an additional five years in jail.
State prosecutor Oscar Madhume told the court that on October 23 last year, detectives from the Drugs and Narcotics division received information that Chandra was in possession of drugs.
Acting on the tip-off, detectives went to the airport where Chandra had gone through the immigration and customs formalities to board Ethiopian Airways.
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He was summoned to the scanning point where his suitcase was searched and the police recovered the heroine tightly wrapped with brown adhesive tape packed in a transparent polythene packet.
Chandra was arrested.
It was established that he had an Indian passport and an air ticket to Addis Ababa enroute to India on an Ethiopian airline.
A preliminary field test was carried out on the contraband in his presence and it tested positive for heroine.
The heroine weighed 7,7kg.