Drugs Worth Rs 100 Cr Seized in the Last 14 Days at RGIA
Hyderabad: In less than two weeks, drugs — mostly cocaine and heroin — worth over Rs 100 crore have been seized at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
Seizure of heroin worth nearly Rs 12 crore on Wednesday was the latest, while cocaine worth Rs 80 crore was seized on May 1 and cocaine worth over Rs 11 crore in late April.
Interestingly, all the suspects were African nationals, mostly Tanzanians, with ingested drug capsules becoming an increasingly common modus operandi. In Wednesday’s seizure, officers of the Air Intelligence Unit, Hyderabad Customs intercepted a 50-year-old Tanzanian male passenger and seized 1,389.1 grams of heroin worth Rs 11.53 crore in the international grey market.
According to the Customs officials, it was based on passenger profiling and body behaviour that officers identified the Tanzanian, who had arrived from Johannesburg via Abu Dhabi by Etihad Airways Flight No.EY-274 on April 26. “When enquired, he admitted that he had ingested capsules containing heroin. He was then produced before a magistrate after which he was admitted to a hospital.
Under medical supervision, over a period of 6 days, he purged out 108 capsules containing heroin wrapped in adhesive transparent tape,” Customs officials said, adding that the suspect was arrested on May 3 and remanded in judicial custody.
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