A Congolese envoy based in Brussels has been detained in Bulgaria, suspected of using his diplomatic immunity to transport drugs in suitcases.
According to a report seen by AFP on Wednesday, Jean De Dieu Mutebwa Mulumba travelled from Western Europe to Turkey five times over the past year. He was arrested last Friday at the Bulgarian-Turkish border, with his diplomatic-plated vehicle found carrying more than 200 kilograms of cocaine.
Serving as the second secretary at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s embassy in the Benelux region, the envoy, in his forties, claimed he was visiting Sofia to shop for his wife and was unaware of the suitcase contents.
He was accompanied by a 54-year-old Belgian woman, the widow of a diplomat, who initially claimed that the five suitcases, each weighing 40 kilograms, contained gold. A 43-year-old Bulgarian man, identified as the organiser of the transport, was also arrested. The trio faces up to 20 years in prison.
The prosecutor described a “well-established modus operandi,” noting increasingly heavier loads with each unnoticed convoy, as diplomatic vehicles are “generally not inspected.”
