Two Kenyan nationals who arrived in India on Tuesday and Thursday via the International Airport at Delhi have been nabbed by authorities after being caught smuggling cocaine in whiskey bottles.
The cocaine is reported to have a cumulative street value of Sh. 510 million. The first suspect, arrested on Tuesday. She was discovered to possess cocaine worth Sh. 130 million, dissolved in two bottles of whiskey.
Customs officials held the 25-year-old lady at the airport before being handed over to the government’s narcotics unit officials for questioning.
Similarly, Delhi Customs arrested another Kenyan woman on Thursday at the Indira Gandhi International Airport after using the same trick to get cocaine into the country. This is the second arrest from Kenya within the span of a week.
She was caught possessing 3 bottles of whiskey with cocaine, totalling a weight of 2.5 kgs. The value of what she carried was estimated to be north of Sh. 380 million.
A kilogram of cocaine fetches about Sh. 6 million in the black market. Prices are subject to variation due to constraints such as location and reputable sellers.
During interrogation, the woman revealed she was a middleman in the scheme. She received a bag in Nairobi and was to hand it over to its recipient in Delhi and immediately fly back to Kenya.
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“The two bottles were handed over to her at Nairobi airport. She was supposed to hand them over to a person in Delhi,” an official told the local media.
Both suspects are being held by Narcotic Officials awaiting to be arraigned in court for violating the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Local media reports in India indicate that the names of the two Kenyan women are yet to be revealed.
“Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Central Government shall take all such measures as it may deem necessary or expedient to prevent and combat the abuse of and illicit traffic in narcotic and psychotropic substances,” reads the Indian law governing narcotics.
This year, another Kenyan was arrested in India in February for trying to smuggle heroin worth Sh. 127 million.
Captured at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, this makes it the third arrest of Kenyan women smuggling drugs to India in a year.
