New drug-smuggling system uncovered LEONARD NEILL NAMIBIAN AND South African customs authorities have combined forces to combat a new, sophisticated method of smuggling cocaine through Southern African airports – by hiding it in a consignment of human hair. It was the first of its kind detected on the sub-continent and has placed O R Tambo International Airport authorities on alert. The consignment arrived recently on a flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil and landed up at Windhoek’s Hosea Kutako International Airport among excess baggage destined for an Angolan woman who had flown a month earlier from the South American city. Her 21-year-old son, who was studying at the University of Namibia, was arrested at the airport when he arrived to claim the baggage. “There were 76 packages of human hair, used as hair extensions by hairstylists, which attracted the attention of the officers,” said Detective Chief Inspector Barry de Klerk of the drug unit. “We found that the cocaine had been initially dissolved and then soaked into the hair. It is quite simple to sieve the hair from the drug material once opened.”
