DRI arrests Nigerian man with liquid cocaine in whiskey bottles worth ₹20cr | Mumbai news

Mumbai: A Nigerian man was arrested on Thursday at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport with two whiskey bottles in which cocaine was dissolved in liquid, to make it difficult for law enforcement agencies to detect the contraband, while trafficking the drug to India.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai seized the bottles with ‘liquid cocaine’ worth 20 crore in the illicit market.

DRI had specific intelligence about narcotics being smuggled into India by a passenger (name not revealed by the agency) who was flying from Lagos, Nigeria to Mumbai via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday.

Accordingly, surveillance was mounted by a team of DRI officers at the airport. The suspected passenger was identified and intercepted by the team of DRI officers upon his arrival at the airport.

“A thorough search of his baggage led to the recovery of 2 whiskey bottles of one litre each. After testing the liquid, and the bottles with the drug detection kit, the presence of cocaine was indicated. The weight of the two bottles with the liquid cocaine was approximately 3.56 kilograms,” the agency said on Thursday.

The central agency is further investigating the international drug smuggling syndicate behind the racket. DRI officials are trying to find out who gave the consignment to the arrested foreigner, suspected to be a carrier, who was smuggling the consignment in India. A person in Mumbai was supposed to contact him and take the delivery of the contraband material after the carrier got out of the airport and therefore, the DRI sleuths are now trying to find out details about the racket’s Mumbai members.

The accused has been arrested under relevant sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act for smuggling commercial quantities of a banned drug.

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