Hyderabad: Sleuths of the city Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) today nabbed a Tanzanian national travelling from Johannesburg to Hyderabad via Dubai by Emirates Flight No. EK 0528 on April 21 at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here.
When inquired, he revealed that he had ingested capsules containing “Cocaine”. The passenger purged 22 capsules at the airport and sought immediate medical assistance. He was admitted to a Hospital. Subsequently, under medical supervision, over a period of five days, the passenger purged out another 57 capsules, resulting in recovery of a total of 79 capsules. Capsules containing the contraband are covered using adhesive transparent tape. The capsules purged by the passenger were cut opened and the smuggled “Cocaine” weighing 1157 gram valued at Rs 11.57 crore in the international grey market was seized. The passenger was arrested under NDPS Act, 1985 and remanded to judicial custody.
During investigation, it was revealed that he travelled to Johannesburg from Tanzania. From Johannesburg, he was taken to Pretoria where he swallowed these capsules prior to his journey to India. He was supposed to purge them over a period of 3 to 4 days and hand over to an unidentified person.
It was due to the diligence, high alertness and timely action of the officers of DRI and Customs that the passenger was nabbed immediately upon his arrival in Hyderabad. It may be mentioned here that this is one of the largest seizures of Cocaine in Hyderabad in recent years by DRI.
