Showing posts with label Smuggling of illegal medicines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smuggling of illegal medicines. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Danish Woman In Custody Risk Up To 10 Years in Cambodian Prison

2008-04-22
By Bjarne Wildau
ScandAsia - Denmark

The Danish woman, Axelexen Johanne Vinther, who got arrested for an attempt to smuggle more than 10000 headache pills tablets out of Cambodia, is now held in police custody. And she could face up to 10 years in a Cambodian prison, if convicted.

The woman arrived in Cambodia three weeks, before at fast thinking post officer in a post office got suspicious, and alarmed the police. A few minutes later, she was arrested in front of the post office.

The Danish representative in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh is aware of the case, and has already paid a visit to the 45 year old woman, who is held in a woman and youth prison at the outskirt of the town, writes the Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet...

”She is very calm and composed, but at the same time also shaken by the fact that she is in jail. But she is doing fairly well, and is treated well. The prison is in a reasonable condition, and she can talk a little with the other prisoners", say the head of the Danish representation, Tom Hansen.

Axelexen Johanne Vinther stayed in Cambodia on a tourist visa before her arrest. She has asked the Danish authorities not to inform her kin’s about her situation. She has confessed that she tried to smuggle the Headache pills out of the country.

“It seems like she would send the pills to her friends in Denmark by mail, to help someone, and to make a little extra money. How much’s, I don’t know. And it’s not my feeling, that she explains her self and her acts very well, Tom Hansen says.

According to the woman’s own explanation, she did not see the shipment as a problem, because the pills can be bought without any prescription in Cambodia. The Danish authorities haven’t seen the written foundation for the conviction, witch is extremely important for the fate of the woman. Right now the Danish citizen is leaning her self to a final conviction of between five and 10 years in jail, Tom Hansen says to Ekstra Bladet.

At the moment Mr. Hansen is trying to find the Dane a lawyer. Axelexen Johanne Vinther will propably stand in front of a just within a week or so, and then the conviction will be decided.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Foreigner Caught Mailing Drugs

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
14 April 2008


A Danish woman is facing charges of drug smuggling, after she was caught trying to mail pills containing codeine—a controlled substance—from a Phnom Penh post office, officials said Friday.

Axelexen Johanne Vinther, 45, had mixed thousands of tablets containing codeine among other medicine and toys in a package bound for the US, officials said.

Authorities confiscated about 1 kilogram of codeine tablets for lab inspection, said Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Sok Kalyan.

“They kept only the suspect codeine tablets, and took out the toys and medicine in the package,” he said.

Codeine, a widely used opiate, remains legal to buy over the counter in Cambodia, but illegal to ship overseas.

“We have implemented Cambodia and international law,” said Lt. Gen. Lour Ramin, secretary-general of the National Drug Authority. “If she claims innocence, why did she hide codeine with medicine and toys? Now it’s a court matter.”

Vinther has said she was asked only to mail a package in exchange for money, he added.

Court officials say there will be more investigation and lab work in the case.

Several foreign nationals are serving jail time in Cambodia for attempting to mail heroin.

Vinther faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted.