In a major drug bust at the Mumbai airport, customs officials seized six kilogramme of cocaine from two Asian women flying in from Africa on Wednesday morning.
The incident took place at around 5.30 am on the international terminal of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) when officials from the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the airport customs department apprehended one Indonesian and one Vietnamese passenger who had landed from an Ethiopian Airways flight and were about to clear the customs checking.
“The Indonesian woman has been Adema Sirgare (65), and the Vietnamese woman as Ly Lgosce (45). Further investigations are underway,” said airport customs commissioner P.M. Saleem.
Both landed from Ethiopian Airways flight ET-610 coming from the Ethiopian capital of Adis Ababa.
According to a customs official, they had received prior information about the possibility of an Indonesian who might smuggle drugs and checked Sirgare’s bag when she approached the customs clearance area after landing.
“She had stitched a false bottom to the bag and concealed 4 kg of cocaine. Later, we noticed the Vietnamese woman was acting highly erratic, which raised our suspicion and we
found another 2 kg of the drug concealed the same way. We are now investigating whether the two women knew each other or were acting independently,” said a senior customs official.
After being apprehended with the drug, the two women were immediately detained. The quantity of the drug is worth `3 crore in the domestic market, but is `6 crore in the international market.
Both the accused were booked under several sections of the Customs Act and the Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).