INDIA. Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 11.94 kilogrammes of heroin worth Rs. 84 crores from a woman passenger arriving from Harare, Zimbabwe, at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport.
The passenger, Rukshana Shaikh, and her accomplices, Amir Sayyed and Raees Meerza, who came to the airport to pick her up, were arrested by the DRI under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985, a DRI official said on Wednesday.
Rukshana Sheikh was caught on Tuesday when she flew from Harare to Mumbai via Nairobi on Kenya Airways. The information that led to her capture was very clear.
Searching her baggage resulted in the recovery and seizure of 11.94 kg of cream-coloured granules. The substance was concealed inside the trolley bags and file folders. After testing, the substance was identified as heroin, a narcotic drug covered under the NDPS Act of 1985.
The seized substance is worth approximately Rs. 84 crores in the illicit market. The woman passenger claimed that the seized drugs were given to her in Harare and that she was to deliver them to Sayyed and Meerza, who were arrested from outside the airport, the official said.
The DRI suspects that a large syndicate of heroin suppliers is behind this, as such a huge quantity has come to Mumbai by air. Officials are now questioning and investigating further to uncover the entire heroin supply chain.
This was DRI’s second major seizure this year, following the seizure of heroin worth Rs 100 crore from a passenger arriving from Malawi, an African country, in October last year. Following that, a Ghanaian national woman was apprehended at a hotel in Delhi while on her way to receive a drug delivery.
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