KOCHI: Just days after Kochi airport resumed services following the flood, the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) seized 2.7kg of cocaine worth around Rs15 crore seizure from a Venezuelan on Saturday.An NCB officer in Kochi said the arrested has been identified as Victor David Romero Infante, who arrived in a Qatar Airways flight at the Kochi airport around 10 am, from Sao Paulo in Brazil via Doha.
"The accused was working for a Brazil-based drug cartel. He had obtained a tourist visa to India, booked a hotel room in Kochi and was planning to stay here for the next couple of days. The consignment containing cocaine was to be handed to over to an unidentified person," said the officer. NCB Zonal Director A Bruno said Infante's luggage was checked based on secret information.
"The seized drug was concealed in the false bottom of his briefcase carried as check-in luggage. The recovered cocaine is of very pure form and was sourced directly from a production belt in South America. Infante is believed to be working at the behest of a cartel from that region," he said.NCB has started an investigation to track down the person who was to receive the drug consignment in Kochi.
"The accused claimed he arrived in India for the first time. There're no travel details in the passport seized from him. Primarily we've to check whether it was a reissued one. In a majority of the cocaine seizures reported, the carriers don't maintain any information about people working for the cartel.