Kenya Airways passenger was on Wednesday arrested in India for trying to smuggle heroin worth Sh127 million.
The female passenger was arrested at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said.
The passenger arrived in India from Harare via Nairobi on board a Kenya Airways flight.
The DRI said the suspect, who was identified as Rukshana Shaikh, upon interrogation said the drugs were handed over to her in Harare and the same were to be delivered to two persons in Mumbai.
An official said that examination of the passenger baggage resulted in the recovery and seizure of cream-coloured granules.
“On testing with narcotics field testing kit, the substance tested positive for the presence of ‘heroin’, a narcotic drug covered under the NDPS Act,1985, the official added.
According to the officers, the substance was concealed inside the trolley bags and file folders, and it is valued at approximately Sh127 million (Rs 84 Crores) in the illicit market.
DRI officers also identified and arrested the said recipients who had come to receive the passenger and the contraband outside the airport.
According to the police in India, the two suspects were acting on instructions of a Nigerian national based in Delhi.
The police said in the past the suspects had similarly made two individuals smuggle drugs from Zimbabwe and Kenya.
The arrest come barely a week after two Kenya Airways (KQ) flight crew have been arrested in India for allegedly being in possession of concealed gold.
Although the weight and worth of the gold has not been disclosed, it is said that the two were nabbed by the Mumbai airport authorities who are reported to have alerted their Kenyan counterparts on the case.
The suspected national carrier crew were arrested when their respective flights landed in Mumbai.
It is also not clear whether the security officers acted on a tip but investigations have been launched, according to Kenyan authorities aware of the development.
The two are reported to have arrived from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Nairobi aboard separate flights on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 when they were found in possession of the gold without prior declaration.
