A BELLY allegedly full of cocaine landed an Angolan national in the dock in the Windhoek Magistrate's Court on charges of dealing in or possessing drugs last week.

Having become the latest in a succession of Angolan citizens to be arrested over the past year on drugs charges after landing at Namibian airports while allegedly carrying swallowed cocaine inside their intestines, Joao Ndongala (44) made a first court appearance before Magistrate Ingrid Soabes on Monday last week.

Ndongala was arrested on January 21, after he had arrived at Hosea Kutako International Airport east of Windhoek on a flight from Johannesburg. It is claimed that his journey to Namibia began in São Paulo in Brazil - the city where several other Angolans had also been travelling from when they were arrested in Namibia on cocaine trafficking charges over the past year.

Ndongala was arrested after cocaine "bullets" - plastic-wrapped sealed capsules of the drug - were allegedly found in his luggage and more were detected inside his intestines. He is alleged to have carried a total quantity of about 1,5 kilograms of cocaine into Namibia. The drugs would have a local street value of about N$750 000.

With his appearance in court, Ndongala's case was postponed to February 26 for further investigations to be done. Ndongala, who was represented by defence lawyer Christian Nambahu, is remaining in custody. He is charged with a count of dealing in cocaine, and an alternative charge of possession of cocaine.

Since April last year, a wave of more than a dozen Angolan nationals have been arrested on cocaine-dealing charges after they had landed at Hosea Kutako International Airport and Walvis Bay International Airport on flights from South Africa.

All of them had travelled from Brazil to South Africa before continuing to fly to Namibia.

Four of the Angolans, who were caught with varying quantities of swallowed cocaine bullets, ranging in total weight from 455 grams to 1,33 kg, in their digestive systems in mid-April last year, were sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment each at the end of June, after they had pleaded guilty to a charge of dealing in cocaine.

Another Angolan, who was also arrested in mid-April with 1,35 kg of swallowed cocaine in his body, was sentenced to a seven-year prison term in mid-August after he had also pleaded guilty to a charge of dealing in cocaine.