2 foreigners arrested at Mumbai airport for carrying drugs worth ₹19 crore

Mumbai city news: This is the fifth drug-related arrest made by the NCB since April. Cost of the total amount of drugs seized is more than Rs96 crore.

The Narcotics Control Bureau has, in two separate incidents, seized drugs worth Rs19 crore and arrested two people since Wednesday.

“She travelled from Lome to Addis Ababa and then to Mumbai carrying the drug concealed carefully in 164 capsules kept in two liquor cartons,” said Kumar Sanjay Jha, zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau, Mumbai and Goa. (HT photo)

In the first case, Sophie Dzibza Songe, 38, from Kenya was arrested from Mumbai airport after 2.7 kilograms of Cocaine worth Rs16.2 crore was found on her on Wednesday. “She travelled from Lome to Addis Ababa and then to Mumbai carrying the drug concealed carefully in 164 capsules kept in two liquor cartons,” said Kumar Sanjay Jha, zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau, Mumbai and Goa. Sources said that she was supposed to hand the consignment over to a local drug carrier before she was nabbed.

In the second case, Chirwa Richard Zakiyo, 48, from Zambia was caught at the airport with drugs worth Rs3 crore. He was carrying 23.8 kilograms of the drug Amphetamine. Zakiyo was taking Amphetamine to Addis Ababa, said the police. “Amphetamine is smuggled out to other countries where it is used to prepare another drug called Methamphatamine,” said Jha.

The agency is now looking out for Zakiyo’s accomplice. Investigations revealed that he landed first in Delhi and then took a flight to Mumbai. The drugs were handed over to Zaiko by his accomplice at Colaba, said the police.

“Zakiyo took the contraband and concealed them in cricket thigh guards. He kept them in his checked-in luggage and was to board an evening flight from Mumbai to Addis Ababa from where he was heading to Lusaka,” said Jha.

This is the fifth drug-related arrest made by the NCB since April. Cost of the total amount of drugs seized is more than Rs96 crore.