Woman who swallowed 106 capsules with 930 grams of pure cocaine arrested at airport
Indian police claimed that they have successfully extracted 930 gram of pure South American cocaine in 106 capsules from a woman's stomach after she was caught allegedly trying to smuggle the drugs into the country. The 25-year-old Brazillian national was arrested on May 14 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the capital city of Delhi after a tip-off.
Police believe the woman ingested the capsules in Sau Paulo, Brazil. She was reportedly given instructions to deliver the drugs to a Nigerian national in Delhi. The Hindustan Times reported that officials from the narcotics department said this was "the highest number of capsules of cocaine" that they had ever extracted from a person.
Police officials also added that what they have seized is high-quality cocaine from Colombia. Usually, most similar busts turn up cheaper “crack” cocaine.
The drugs are estimated to be worth nearly $734,000 (£547,000). Police are now on the hunt for the Nigerian national to whom the woman was instructed to deliver the drugs.
“The Nigerian national who had to accept the consignment was supposed to meet her in the hotel in the city. The woman was promised USD 5,000 for successfully delivering the consignment of cocaine,” a senior official with the Narcotics Control Bureau said. The identity of the woman has not been made public.
The Brazilian woman is believed to be a "professional swallower of drugs" and had visited India at least three times in the past, according to the NCB. The suspect reportedly spent the past week at a hospital where she was given laxatives to recover the illegal drugs that were lodged in her stomach and intestinal tract.
“Each time, she was travelling on a tourist Visa. Her passport details have shown that her last visit to Delhi was in February this year,” said the official.
The woman was produced before a city court on Sunday and was reportedly imprisoned. She is believed to be a member of an international drug cartel supplying cocaine to Delhi’s youth.
There has been a noticeable increase in the number of drug-related crimes in the South Asian country. As many as 132 cases of cocaine seizure were registered across India in 2017, according to the NCB. With state governments heavily cracking down on alcohol and the black market marijuana trade in the country, some people have voiced fears that an increasing number of youths are switching to cocaine and other "hard" drugs.
India has a strict ban on narcotic and psychotropic substances in place since 1985. Despite this, there is a virulent black market trade in substances like cocaine, heroin and amphetamines. The drug trade in India is mostly targeted at the country's large population of young people and sales shoot up in the weeks leading up to and following the New Year.