Rush for Mystery Cocaine kills 4 in Sierra Leone
An unusual occurrence took place in the evening hours of Wednesday, October 17th at Loko Massama village, Kaffu Bullom Chiefdom in the Port Loko District, Northern Sierra Leone when a group of native women went to do their laundry in a nearby river at the Bailor Community by the seaside. Large quantities of parcels containing white substances were found floating in the sea waters by these unsuspecting women.
Speaking to Awareness Times, an eye witness who identified herself as Mamusu Swarray disclosed that at about 4:30 pm on the said date, she was among other women laundering in the river close to the sea shores when one of them, whose name she gave as Amina noticed some strange white parcels floating whilst some others had already been drifted ashore close to where they were doing the laundry. The attention of others was immediately drawn to these strange objects by Amina which all of them spontaneously concluded to be packets of powdered ‘Surf’ soap. In their desperation to make good use of this opportunity, all of them rushed to get a share of these packeted ‘powdered soap’ leaving the rest to remain afloat as they happily went ahead with their activities now that they had secured enough ‘soap’ to spare.
"I used four packets on my soaked clothes. I however noticed that the perceived soap stuff was not producing any foam as real soap does," Mamusu stated, adding that she then discontinued pouring the substances on her clothes just minutes before her husband materialized in the scene. She said she at once showed him their discovery who in turn immediately detected the white powdered substances as being parcels of cocaine. Her husband’s keen show of concern, she went on attracted the other women who then made a rush to bring ashore the remaining floating parcels, now that they knew what financial gain the said illegal drugs would bring.
News of the cocaine find soon spread in the village like a bush fire in the harmattan as vigilant youths descended on the seaside to retail from the women what they could with pittance as the latter did not know the financial worth of the addictive drugs.
The already gathered crowd saw other parcels afloat and decided to make their own chase. In the ensuing scramble, four people lost their lives by drowning, including three women and a young boy.
When contacted by this press, the Local Unit Commander (LUC), Lungi Police Station, Chief Superintendent Francis Nyuma confirmed the unusual discovery by the women but that they failed to instantly inform the police. He went on to say that it only came to their notice when it was generally alarmed, but at that time people had already purchased all the stuff and gone underground, hence they were unable to make any arrest.
He however gave assurance to this press that they would embark on thorough investigation as to who might be still in possession of the cocaine and where they might have kept it.
It is believed that these parcels came from the deep seas drifted ashore by the tides. The mystery is unsolved.
Rush for Mystery Cocaine kills 4 in Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone News
