CHENNAI/VILLUPURAM:A South African national who had swallowed 990 grams of cocaine in capsules that she had later planned on retrieving was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), at the Chennai Airport.
Sources said Molefe Keditlwaetse Lizzie, from Sau Paulo had swallowed cocaine capsules worth `5 crore in Brazil and flew to Chennai via Abu Dhabi on a tourist visa.
The woman was believed to have been paid US $15,000 for acting as courier.
“Swallowing capsules containing cocaine which will be collected 48 hours later from the excreta is very risky as the courier might get killed due to drug overuse if the capsule breaks inside the stomach,” the official added.
The NCB suspected that though the courier was arrested in Chennai, the cocaine might have been for distribution across other metro cities in the country.
According to the NCB Zonal Director, Prem Anand Sinha, Lizzie was in India to deliver the cocaine and planned to leave the country afterwards.
This is the fifth such seizure in a span of ten months in Chennai by the NCB.
NCB officials noted that South American cocaine cartels are expanding their business within India directly without help from agents.
Goondas Act on 4 Smugglers
Villupuram Collector M Lakshmi on Monday issued an order to book four persons under the Goondas Act for smuggling PDS rice.
According to sources, the food cell police had arrested nine persons — Idhyadullh (30), Habib Rahman (31), Shafiullah (26), Jiyaudeen (38), Karthi (25), and Umabathi (29) of Madukarai, Anandhamorthy(27) of Thavalakuppam, Abdul Razaq (45) of Tirubhuvanai and Abdullah (29) of Madagadipet — from Puducherry for smuggling 4,000 kg of rice. They were caught in a vehicle check on November 1.
Order to book Idhyadullh, Habib, Shafiullah and Jiyaudeen under Goondas Act was given as they were involved in many cases.