By Max Hamata and Surihe Gaomas WINDHOEK The death of a local mobile phone supplier’s employee has shocked relatives and friends alike after it emerged that her flamboyant husband may have deviously lured her to Brazil as a drug mule where she ended up carrying 31 pellets of cocaine with a street value of N$205 000 in her stomach. The cocaine weighed 410 grams in total, including 13 pellets found in the abdomen of the 29-year-old Angolan husband, Paulo Paulo Da Silva. This is believed to be the largest drug trafficking case this year. The drug trafficking operation went horribly wrong after one plastic pellet containing a white substance burst, emptying the deadly stuff inside Darlin Da Silva Paiva’s stomach and triggering a chemical reaction that led to her death. The street value of the 13 parcels of cocaine found in the abdomen of the Angolan charmer is estimated at N$87 000. He was arrested on Tuesday evening, police confirmed yesterday. He is being charged with dealing in drugs and more charges may come up as the police may link him to the death of his wife. “What has shocked us family and friends is the fact that this guy could do this to the mother of his daughter,” said a family member who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. Sources said the tragedy occurred at the couple’s upmarket apartment at Bergland Flats in Lindequist Street where they have been living with their five-year-old daughter. The police said they were investigating the possibility of more uncovered cocaine because there was a long delay in reporting her death to the police, which prompted suspicion that the suspect may have been buying time in order to hide the cocaine. New Era learned that before she succumbed to the drug overdose, Darlin telephoned her parents in Gobabis to caution them that she was in trouble, without elaborating. The parents then communicated their daughter’s concerns to an older sister who is based Windhoek. When the older sister arrived at the apartment, she found her dead. Da Silva allegedly prevented his sister-in-law from reporting the incident to the police to a point that she had to escape from the apartment in order to telephone her parents in Gobabis about the tragic news. Only then were the parents able to inform the police about their daughter’s death. The unemployed Angolan philanderer apparently initially invited his wife for a holiday trip to South Africa. “I was shocked when she told me that he was taking her on holiday because he rarely took her out in public places in Windhoek,” said one concerned friend. According to another source, the idea of extending the holiday trip to Brazil only surfaced when the couple reached Johannesburg. Darlin went to Brazil unaware that she was being used as a drug mule by her presumably beloved husband, says the family. According to the Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Namibian Police, more Namibian women are getting involved in drug trafficking. A record of 120 000 cases were recorded last year and the drugs had a street value of N$5 million. Confiscated drugs included cannabis, ecstasy, mandrax, cocaine, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and heroin. Statistics of drug trafficking and abuse increased enormously last year. “There was a decrease of heroin and LSD and an increase of cannabis and man-drax. Shockingly, there was a drastic increase of ecstasy during last year,” an official from the Drug Enforcement Unit said. On the other hand, the Namibian Police Drug Law Enforcement Unit has previously been successful, as huge amounts of drugs were confiscated and big syndicates of drug traffickers penetrated, apprehended and prosecuted. Drugs are mostly coming into Namibia from neigh-bouring countries such as South Africa, Angola and Zambia. Some drugs are also coming from South American countries like Brazil, Columbia, Peru and also from some European and Asian countries as reported by the Namibian police. New Era’s attempts to get comment from Da Silva or his lawyer were unsuccessful by the time of going to press.