Hyderabad, May 2 (IANS) Eight kg cocaine valued at Rs 80 crore has been seized from two passengers at Hyderabad International Airport by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), an official said on Monday.
The contraband was seized in two separate cases. A male Tanzanian national, travelling from Cape Town to Hyderabad on a business visa and a lady passenger from Angola, with itinerary Angola - Mozambique - Lusaka - Dubai - Hyderabad on a tourist Visa were arrested.
Acting on specific intelligence, the officers of DRI unravelled two cases in a late night operation on May 1.
A total of 8 kg of cocaine, each passenger carrying 4 kg, were seized from the passengers from the packets concealed in the false bottom of their trolley bags. The estimated value of the seized cocaine in the illicit market is Rs 80 crore.
According to the DRI, the instances of smuggling drugs through air have increased with easing restrictions on air travel and increased passenger traffic.
While Indian Customs have facilitated the clearances smoothly, the alert officers have busted the drug smuggling syndicates and nabbed carriers on multiple occasions across the country. Ingenious ways of transporting the contraband have been noticed by way of laminating drugs finely into their baggage which are almost invisible to the naked eye or by concealment in shampoos and food items or at times the passenger becomes body carrier by ingesting drugs in laminated capsules.
Multiple cases involving seizure of cocaine concealed in the form of pills ingested by air passengers have been booked by the DRI in the last four months. In two such cases booked in Mumbai during March and April, a total of 2.42 kg of cocaine was found concealed in pills ingested by two passengers.
In April, 1.15 kg of cocaine concealed in pills ingested by a passenger was seized at Hyderabad, and in another case one kg of cocaine was seized at Bengaluru in August 2021. Apart from Mumbai and Hyderabad, seizures of cocaine have also been affected at other airports also.
Sustained efforts of DRI has led to seizure of more than 350 kg of cocaine, estimated to be worth Rs 3,500 crore in illicit market, across the country after January, 2021. This includes a big haul of about 303 kg of cocaine, seized from a containerised cargo at Tuticorin Port.
A massive earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale occurred along the Mizoram-Myanmar border on Friday, which was shook parts of Assam, Manipur, Tripura and the adjoining areas of northeast region, authorities said, adding that there were no reported damages or deaths.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari led the state by solemnly laying wreaths at the Martyrs' Memorial erected inside the Mumbai Police Commissionerate premises near Crawford Market in south Mumbai.
Amarinder Singh said in a statement here that although he owed no explanation to "an out of job legislator who has been sacked as a minister in Rajasthan for being named as an accused in murder case of Kamlesh Prajapat, in Barmer, and inquiry for which has been handed over to the CBI by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Ghelot", he still wanted to set the record straight.
Hearings in the US Senate in 2009 on the lessons learnt from the 26/11 Mumbai attacks remarked that the attackers appeared to know their targets better than the responding commandos.
Party in-charge of the state Harish Chaudhary has reached out to Jakhar but sources say he was unable to pacify him and it is likely that Sonia Gandhi may have to intervene in the state's issues. Sources close to Sunil Jakhar confirmed the meeting on Tuesday evening.
Passenger air services were suspended in late March 2020 due to the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19. While domestic flight services resumed from May 25, 2020, international flight services were only maintained via 'Bubble Agreements'.
