Zambian national held with Heroin worth ₹18 crore at Mumbai Airport

The arrested woman is a housewife from Zambia and comes from a poor background. This is the first time she has come to India. She was roped in by the narcotics gangs as a carrier and was offered $2,000 (equivalent to around ₹1.47 lakh) for the risky job.

The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai Customs arrested a Zambian national travelling from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Mumbai and seized 3.5 kg of Heroin valued at ₹18 crore from her possession.

Earlier this week, a mother-daughter duo travelling from Johannesburg to Mumbai through Doha were arrested with Heroin worth nearly ₹25 crore at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. (SHUTTERSTOCK.)

The drug packets were cleverly concealed in a hidden cavity in the passenger’s trolly bag. She has been booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

This is the second big drug seizure made by AIU in a week. Earlier this week, a mother-daughter duo traveling from Johannesburg to Mumbai through Doha were arrested with Heroin worth nearly ₹25 crore at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

AIU senior officials said that based on specific inputs the 41-year-old foreigner was intercepted at the CSIA Mumbai on Thursday and subsequent examination led to the recovery of the drugs. She has arrived in India on a business visa.

The arrested woman is a housewife from Zambia and comes from a poor background. This is the first time she has come to India. She was roped in by the narcotics gangs as a carrier and was offered $2,000 (equivalent to around ₹1.47 lakh) for the risky job, said an AIU official.

“This is unusual. Usually South American drug cartels send Cocaine to India through this modus operandi as there is high demand for Cocaine in the country, but demand for Heroin is not that high. We suspect that the seized contraband was not destined for India. India was just a transit point,” a senior AIU officer said.

AIU officials are now scanning her phone call details to know more about her associates and to whom she was to hand over the smuggled drugs.

The accused was produced in court and remanded to judicial custody on Friday.