Two foreigners trying to smuggle cocaine held

The Customs officials arrested two foreign nationals at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 1.7 kg of cocaine, worth Rs  10 crore in the national market, into the country, authorities said on Thursday. The  arrested foreigners had  swallowed 145 capsules filled with cocaine which were later extracted in a Government hospital in New Delhi.

According to officials, acting on the information two foreign nationals— a Kenyan and other Bolivian— were intercepted by the custom department at the airport who had arrived from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

“During detailed examination of their luggage and personal search nothing was recovered but based on the reasonable belief that there was concealment of contraband goods inside the body of the passengers the duo were taken to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where after following the proper procedure a total of 145 capsules swallowed by the passengers were recovered.

 In the hospital,  89 capsules weighing 890 gram were extracted from Bolivian national and 56 capsules weighing 842 gram from the Kenyan. Hospital authorities took four days to extract the narcotics from the systems of the foreign nationals. The content of these capsules tested positive for 'cocaine' weighing around 1.7 kg,” said Dr Amandeep Singh, Additional Commissioner of Customs, IGIA adding further that the duo were arrested under section 43 (b) and the recovered cocaine have been seized.

In another incident one Indian man who was travelling to London was arrested at IGI Terminal-3 who was allegedly trying to export foreign currency.  “The accused was carrying foreign currency of Euro 30745, USD 50,409 and Pound Sterling 25030 which  was valued to more than Rs 80 lakh. The recovered foreign currencies have been seized and the passenger has been arrested under section 104 of the Custom act,” said Singh. 

In another incident, Customs officials intercepted an Indian national after he was found carrying foreign currencies more than the permissible limit.