BHOPAL: A young Ghanaian woman, who had been staying in India for a year without a valid visa, has turned out to be a narcotics trafficker.
The woman, aged around 28 years, who was staying in the national capital, Delhi, even a year after her visa expired, was taken into custody from on board a long-distance train at Bhopal railway station on Monday evening.
Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) subsequently seized 591 grams of cocaine worth Rs 2.96 crore from her possession.
According to the DRI’s official statement, acting on specific intelligence about the Ghanaian national trafficking narcotic substances from Chennai to New Delhi on board the 12615 Grand Trunk Express, the country’s premier intelligence and enforcement agency on anti-smuggling matters conducted a joint operation with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Monday.
When the long-distance train arrived at Platform No. 2 of Bhopal Junction railway station on Monday evening, the DRI sleuths and the RPF team intercepted the Ghanaian woman in a 3AC coach of the New Delhi-bound train.
The concerned Ghanaian national was deboarded from the train, and her carry bag and hand purse were subjected to a thorough search, which yielded one cylindrical-shaped packet hidden in the hand bag/purse and 15 capsule-shaped packets hidden in the Horlicks jar carried in the hand bag/purse.
A search of the packets revealed the presence of a white powdery substance. Tests conducted with the NDPS Field Test Kit confirmed the presence of cocaine. The drug, valued at Rs 2.96 crore in the international illicit market, was seized, and the accused woman was arrested under the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985.
Importantly, while Nigerian and Ugandan men and women trafficking drugs on trains and buses have been arrested in Bhopal and Indore in the past, this is the first time that a Ghanaian national has been arrested by DRI sleuths in Madhya Pradesh.
