Cocaine worth Rs 40 crore seized from Indian who arrived from Sierra Leone

Mumbai: An Indian national who checked in a Mumbai hotel after arriving from Sierra Leone has been found in possession of 4 kg of cocaine valued at Rs 40 crore, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said.

Based on specific information, the DRI team conducted a search in a hotel room near the Mumbai airport on Monday and recovered the drug kept in two packets concealed in a travel bag by the accused, who has been arrested, the apex anti-smuggling agency said in a statement.

One of the passengers who had landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport from Sierra Leone was under the DRI lens as the agency suspected he smuggled narcotic substances into India, it said.

After painstaking efforts, the suspect was identified and intercepted at a hotel near the airport where he was staying, said the statement.

A thorough examination of the luggage in his room resulted in the recovery of two packets having a white powdery substance, which were ingeniously concealed in the upper and lower compartments of a trolley bag found in his possession.

Travel documents available with him suggested he carried the bag during his journey from the West African country to Mumbai, the DRI said.

The recovered powdery substance, on examination with a field-testing kit, was found to be cocaine, a drug covered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and was seized.

The accused was arrested and remanded to judicial custody by a local court, the central agency said.

An investigation was underway to locate and apprehend key members of the drug syndicate to which he was associated, it added.