The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has foiled an attempt to smuggle cocaine into India through Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, arresting a Zambian woman who had allegedly swallowed drug-filled capsules, the agency said in a statement reported by ANI on Thursday.
Source: ANI via LatestLY
Acting on specific intelligence, officers of the DRI's Mumbai Zonal Unit intercepted the passenger on October 20 after she arrived from Freetown, Sierra Leone, via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was suspected of acting as a human carrier, concealing the narcotic inside her body through ingestion, the DRI said.
During a medical examination conducted on October 20-21, the passenger expelled 11 capsules containing a white powder. Field testing confirmed the substance was cocaine. The capsules held 190 grams of cocaine (gross weight), valued at approximately Rs 1 crore - about ten million rupees - in the international illicit market. The contraband was seized and the passenger was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
Route: Freetown (Sierra Leone) to Mumbai via Addis Ababa. Seizure: 11 capsules, 190 grams of cocaine, valued at about Rs 1 crore. Action: passenger arrested under the NDPS Act, 1985; further investigation under way.
The DRI said further investigation is under way to unravel the wider network and identify other persons involved, and that it remains committed to dismantling drug-trafficking networks under the government's Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan. The agency also noted a separate seizure earlier this week, in which it recovered 9.139 kg of methamphetamine and arrested one person at the Inter-State Bus Terminal in Bhopal on October 20, according to the same reports.
Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer