E-Paper
Ukrainian woman arrested with 1.2 kg cocaine at Kolkata airport
A woman passenger from Ukraine was arrested at Kolkata airport on Tuesday night for possessing 1.2 kg cocaine. She took off from Sao Paolo and landed in Kolkata on an Etihad flight after a stopover in Abu Dhabi.
A woman passenger from Ukraine was arrested at Kolkata airport on Tuesday night for possessing 1.2 kg cocaine. She took off from Sao Paolo and landed in Kolkata on an Etihad flight after a stopover in Abu Dhabi. The 30-year-old passenger was supposed to board a flight to Mumbai. However, she was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau.
According to sources, the narcotic was found in a box of chocolates inside the registered baggage of the passenger. Officials said the consignment must will be worth Rs 15 crore (approximately) in the international market.
This is the second instance of a woman passenger coming to Kolkata from Sao Paolo with cocaine in the past four months.
“In September, a South African woman was arrested for carrying 3 kilo of the same substance. She had a stopover in Dubai,” an official of Kolkata airport told HT. Incidentally, that was also the biggest consignment of cocaine to be nabbed at Kolkata airport in the recent past.
Cocaine, a banned substance, is used as a recreational drug with effects ranging from intense feeling of happiness and loss of contact with reality. The chemical is usually snorted or injected into the veins. It is commonly regarded as the second most used narcotic in the world after cannabis.
Airport officials say it is commonly perceived that the security and checking at Kolkata airport is relatively lax and therefore, many consignments of narcotics and gold are often routed through this airport. Over the past one year, many passengers were apprehended in Kolkata carrying huge quantities of gold worth crores of rupees.
