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Nigerian with cocaine concealed in uterus nabbed at Kolkata airport
Narcotics Control Bureau official said it was one of the rarest of rare events where narcotics were being smuggled by hiding them inside the uterus.
A 31-year-old Nigerian woman was detained in Kolkata airport for allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine in her uterus on Monday night, ten days after five Chinese nationals were arrested with almost 200kg of a banned party drug from a railway station in the city.
Narcotics Control Bureau’s eastern zone regional director Dilip Kumar Srivastava said David Blessing was carrying around 12 grams of cocaine from Mumbai.
“This is one of the rarest of rare events where narcotics were being smuggled by hiding them inside the uterus. Neither I nor any of my senior colleagues have ever heard of such an incident,” Srivastava said.
Blessing, who was also found carrying 20 blots of LSD in her bag, will be arrested under appropriate sections after the narcotics from her uterus is recovered.
Bureau officials reached the airport after being tipped off by one of their sources that a person was carrying narcotics.
“The presence of narcotics inside the uterus was detected through the X-ray machines at the airport. However, we doubt that additional quantities of narcotics are hidden in other parts of her body,” Srivastava said.
“She has been taken to a hospital, where other tests such as ultrasonography would be conducted to trace those. She will undergo surgery to take out the concealed drugs,” he added.
Srivastava said that the exact value of drugs can be ascertained only after all those hidden in her body are recovered after operations.
Bureau officials said Blessing has no record of past crime.
“But now we will get everything verified including whether her passport is genuine,” said an officer.
Government Railway Police arrested five Chinese nationals on June 29 and found 197kg of amphetamine, a banned party drug, that was valued at Rs 40 crore.
On July 4, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal police seized 1.9kg of the same drug from a closed factory in Murshidabad district of the state.
Agencies such as NCB and Kolkata Police have been conducting a series of raids against narcotics rackets in the state since the end of October last year.
Several people, including disc jockeys of reputed nightclubs, popular restaurant owners and engineering and management students have been arrested.
Bureau officials have also held meetings with authorities of different management institutes on how to curb the use of narcotics among students.
Srivastava said they have noticed a shift in the style of operation of operators compared to earlier decades. According to him, students from middle-class educated families and nightclub jockeys seem to be replacing traditional peddlers, turning the supply chain bigger and more sophisticated.
Banned drugs are also sometimes procured through the internet using cryptocurrency.
