American Military Consultant Arrested in Mauritius with Suspected Heroin

Scott Bradley Mertz, an American military consultant was on Monday arrested in Bain des Dames in the outskirts of Port Louis the Mauritius capital by the Police Anti Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU), when he was allegedly caught trying to deliver 1.5kg of heroin valued at US$700, 000, police sources say.

His alleged Mauritian contact, Sawoo Balgobin was also arrested during the operation, the police say.

According to a communiqué issued by the Police Press Office at the police headquarters in the capital, Mertz, who is based in the Ugandan capital Kampala and was traveling from the Kenyan capital Nairobi with a diplomatic passport landed on Monday morning and left the airport without his luggage being checked. He then took a taxi to Port Louis where he booked a room in a hotel.

During the day, his local contacts asked him on the phone to travel to the coastal village of Flic en Flac, 25 km west of Port Louis to deliver the package. But the operation aborted due to the heavy presence of the police there. He came back to Port Louis where he was told to travel to Bain des Dames and throw the bag containing the package over a wall, the communiqué said.

According to the police, when his alleged contacts came to retrieve the parcel about one hour later, they could not find it as the American had mistakenly thrown the bag in a different courtyard. By that time, the inhabitants of that courtyard where the drug landed had already informed the ADSU.

Members of the unit, who immediately arrived on the spot substituted the drug with sugar powder and laid in wait for the contacts to come back again with Mertz to identify the courtyard. Balgobin, one of the alleged local accomplices who brought Mertz back on a motorcycle, found the parcel and instinctively phoned his other contacts. Both were immediately arrested, the police say.

Fifteen minutes later, according to the police, two other drug dealers reached the place in a car, but they very quickly understood that it was a trap. They escaped and abandoned the car on the spot. The police was extremely surprised to discover that the abandoned car belonged to a police officer, one Sergeant Sanjay Khugpurh. The police said they are actively looking for the two escapees while Khugpurh has given himself up.

Mertz, who is in remand at the police headquarters, has on Tuesday morning received visits by American diplomats in his cell.

Source African Press Agency

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