The Betel nut ban act applies in the National Capital District, and not the Central province.
The transportation of betel nut becomes an offense and is an unlawful act once it is brought into NCD for sale.
This is according to Justice Panuel Mogish of the Waigani National Court when convicting two police officers on Friday for aggravated armed robbery.
The misinterpretation of the betel nut law, especially on the transportation of the betel nut, has seen suppliers and growers particularly in the Kairuku area, become victims of police abuse.
Some have even been robbed through the unlawful raid of betel nut bags by police officers at road blocks in the Central Province.
Two police officers who had the wrong interpretation of the betel nut act, especially to do with transportation, were found guilty of the armed robbery of 52 betelnut bags and six bundles of mustard from four people from the Kairuku area.
George Ikalom and Timothy Rorepa were in the company of other NCD based police, when they used threatening force and violence to confiscate the bags of betel nut at Agevairu, on 21 March 2015.
The bags were on a PMV from Gabadi to Papa-Lealea, also in the Central province.
Witnesses in the case said Ikalom was intoxicated and disorderly, threatening them with his gun, while Rorepa who led the team, insisted on checking the PMV concerned.
The court found overwhelming evidence against the two. They were not authorized to be in Central conducting road blocks, and the betel nut bags, which were found well within the borders of Central province, were not supposed to be confiscated in the first place.
Justice Mogish said the transportation of betelnut becomes an offense, once it is carried across the border to NCD.