In a major drug bust at the international airport, Customs officers caught two female African nationals from Mozambique with narcotics worth `15 crore as they were attempting to smuggle out the contraband from the country. Thirty kilogrammes of Methaqualone was seized from the women early on Monday before they were scheduled to board a flight to Botswana.
According to officials of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), Mulima Anifa Raimundo Xavier (33) and Mate Ineida Noemia De Assuncao (36) were slated to board a Kenyan Airways flight to Gabone in the Republic of Botswana via Nairobi. A team led by assistant commissioner Rishi Yadav, who were screening passengers and their luggage, held the two after sniffer dogs detected the presence of the drug. “The drug was kept in their check-in luggage, including two large bags, that had 30 saris each. Five hundred grams of Methaqualone was concealed in every sari,” said an AIU source.
Officials said that the two had come from Delhi in a domestic flight around three days ago and carried the drugs with them. Their handlers, who remain at large, handed over the drug to them in the national capital itself. “The women are mere carriers and are a small link of the chain. They are not yet ready to reveal the money that was promised to them in return for transporting the drugs. The drugs are manufactured in the interiors of northern India by illegal chemical units, but transported and peddled by foreign nationals,” the officer added.
Customs sources said that at least 10 such women have been brought into the country by the cartel to mule drugs into the international market. Interestingly, this is the second such case at the airport since late July where female Mozambique nationals headed on the same route were caught with narcotics. On July 30, Mwendlane Catia Daclesa Francisco (22) from Mozambique was caught with 15 kg of Methaqualone worth `7.50 crore. Officers said that the accused in the latest case belong to the same cartel.