70-year-old Chennai resident held with heroin worth ₹70 crore

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials on Sunday arrested a 70-year-old man for allegedly smuggling nearly 10 kg heroin worth ₹70 crore from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The DRI sleuths also arrested a Nigerian national who had come to take delivery of the consignment at a city hotel

MUMBAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials on Sunday arrested a 70-year-old man for allegedly smuggling nearly 10 kg heroin worth ₹70 crore from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The DRI sleuths also arrested a Nigerian national who had come to take delivery of the consignment at a city hotel.

70-year-old Chennai resident held with heroin worth ₹70 crore

Based on specific inputs, the central agency intercepted Maheshwaran Rajagopal of Chennai at Mumbai airport. He had come from Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian flight.

Examination of his luggage led to recovery of a powder-like substance, which tested positive for heroin.

The accused was taken into custody. Rajagopal said that he was in contact with some Nigerian nationals, who had sent him abroad for smuggling drugs to India, a DRI source said.

The accused confessed that he had smuggled drugs to India from South Africa five-six times in the past and delivered the consignments to various Indians and foreign nationals in various parts of the country, the source added.

He also revealed that the current consignment was to be delivered to a Nigerian national at a city hotel. When the suspect came to the hotel to take the delivery, he too was nabbed by the DRI officials on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, the anti-narcotics cell of the Mumbai police on Sunday arrested three persons in Bandra and claimed to have seized 5 kg mephedrone worth ₹10 crore.

The Worli unit of the ANC was conducting patrolling in Bandra when they found the trio moving suspiciously and seized 270 grams mephedrone from the accused.

The police then conducted searches at their residences and found 4.7 kg mephedrone from the residence of one of the accused, who is suspected to be a major drugs supplier.