Mumbai: NCB confiscates more than 3 kg high-grade black cocaine; nabs carrier & receiver during three-day operation

Mumbai: In a major crackdown, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) confiscated 3.20 kg of high-grade black cocaine which was arriving from Brazil. In a three-day major operation, NCB has also nabbed the carrier and receiver from different cities. After this major bust, the country's premier drug-enforcement agency delivered another blow to the international drug syndicate.

NCB seized the narcotic substance from a Bolivian lady at Mumbai Airport and a Nigerian national has also been apprehended from Goa in connection with the drug case. As per a press release by NCB, the seizure of black cocaine is rare.

NCB received a piece of reliable information regarding a South American national, who would be flying into Mumbai with a shipment of drugs that would then be distributed throughout Mumbai and the surrounding states.

A Bolivian woman who was travelling from Brazil to Goa with stops in Addis Abeba and Mumbai was identified after the input was carefully examined and monitored, NCB said in the press release.

Sleuths from the Mumbai NCB reached the spot and 'set up a discreet surveillance perimeter to physically identify the Bolivian lady.'

The press release by NCB read, "On 26/09/2022, shortly, after the flight landed, the said lady was identified who was moving around to board the connecting flight to Goa. Thereafter, she was questioned in routine manner about her purpose of visit and contents in her luggage to which she could not give satisfactory reply. Consequently, a thorough search of her luggage led to discovery of false cavities wherein 12 packets tightly packed were recovered. Upon checking the packets, black coloured substance was found."

After being questioned, the woman admitted that the substance—3.2 kg of black cocaine is what she had. She admitted that she was required to give the drug consignment to a foreign recipient in Goa, NCB said.

A follow-up action plan was created right away to locate the recipient in Goa. An extensive follow-up campaign and technical analysis enabled the identification of the receiver, and a trap was set in a Goa hotel, resulting in the arrest of a Nigerian national, NCB added.