Security officers stationed at Juba International Airport on Thursday intercepted 26 kilograms of heroin and arrested five suspects in the process.

The investigators told the media that the suspects were of mixed nationalities. They included two Kenyans, a South Sudanese Woman and two Nigerians.

The Head of the Legal Department and Public Prosecution at Central Equatoria State, Sabri Wani Ladu, said the seized drug was on transit to Liberia.

He said the security authorities at Juba airport noted the load had abnormal weight which could not match the weight that had been written on the papers.

 The suspects had hidden the drugs inside an electronic device and had smuggled it into the country through a bus from Uganda.

“It was written 25 yet the definite magnitude was 26, so the security personals decided to open the electronics devices and found heroin inside,” Ladu explained.  

 Ladu said that due to the absence of laboratories specialised in identifying such drugs, the security authorities sent the cargo to the Sudanese criminal laboratories for forensic study, which proved that it was narcotic, and heroine.

The substance is considered dangerous and is banned by the South Sudanese law.

The law stipulates that whoever commits the offense of aggravated and unlawful dealing in dangerous drugs, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to death and life imprisonment.