Johannesburg – Lesedi Molapisi – a 30-year-old Botswana woman – caught smuggling heroin into Bangladesh faces execution today, (25 November 2022).
Molapisi’s goose was cooked when she arrived at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Bangladesh, on a Qatar Airways flight from South Africa, which came via Doha.
Dressed in white and wearing a medical mask, Molapisi landed on a warm Sunday afternoon. It was 23 January 2022.
Unbeknownst to Molapisi, her arrival coincided with an alert that the airport was being used to smuggle narcotics.
Bangladesh authorities said customs officials and National Security Intelligence officers intercepted Molapisi in the “Green Channel” – the passage for arriving passengers with no goods to declare.
Molapisi’s luggage was searched and 3.146kg of heroin was found concealed inside. The Botswana national was promptly arrested.
At the time, Daily Star in Bangladesh quoted Sanuwarul Kabir, deputy commissioner of Customs as saying: “We have information that cocaine is being smuggled but officials from the Department of Narcotics Control primarily confirmed that the seized item is heroin. We will send the samples for laboratory tests”.
Bangladesh has strict anti-drug laws, which prescribe the death penalty for anyone caught illegally cultivating, producing, transporting, exporting, or importing heroin, cocaine, and cocaine derivatives drugs in excess of 25 grams or milliliters.
Molapisi was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death.
Reports from that country suggest her execution date has arrived.
Today the young woman from Botswana will reportedly be executed for trying to smuggle heroin worth millions in the international market.
Although The Bulrushes was yet to independently confirm Molapisi’s execution, people in Botswana posted “R.I.P.” videos of the convicted drug smuggler remembering her in happier times dancing and singing along to music at what looks like a club.
