THANE/MUMBAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has seized 396 gm of heroin and arrested three persons, including two Nigerians, in an operation that was carried out in the last seven days, an official said on Saturday.
The contraband was ingeniously concealed in buttons sewn into women's dresses sent in a consignment, which arrived in the city from South Africa, and was intercepted at the hub of an international courier company, the official said.
He said that on examining the parcel, DRI officials noticed abnormally large buttons sewn on each gown in the parcel and found heroin hidden inside.
While attempting a controlled delivery of the parcel, a team of DRI officers tailed the courier company's van and nabbed the recipient of the consignment on Thursday evening, and also subsequently apprehended a Nigerian national who was supposed to collect the contraband, he said.
The official said that during a sustained interrogation of the accused, details about another Nigerian national, a key member of the drug syndicate, cropped up, and he was nabbed from Taloja near Mumbai on Friday.
The arrested accused were produced in the sessions court, Mumbai and have been remanded to judicial custody.