By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Feb 16:
11.94 kilograms of heroin worth Rs. 84 crore was seized, from a woman passenger, who had arrived from Harare in Zimbabwe, at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport, by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).
The passenger Rukshana Shaikh and her accomplices-Amir Sayyed and Raees Meerza, who came to the airport to pick her up, were arrested by the DRI, under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985, the DRI official said on Wednesday.
Rukshana Sheikh, who arrived in Mumbai from Harare, via Nairobi by Kenya Airways on Tuesday, was apprehended based on specific intelligence.
A search of her baggage resulted in the recovery and seizure of 11.94 kg of cream-coloured granules. The substance was concealed inside the trolley bags and file folders. After testing, the substance was identified to be heroin, a narcotic drug covered under the NDPS Act, 1985.
The seized substance is collectively valued at approximately Rs. 84 crore in the illicit market. The woman passenger claimed that the seized drug was given to her in Harare and that she was to deliver them to Sayyed and Meerza, who were arrested from outside the airport, the official said.
The DRI suspects that a large syndicate of heroine supply is behind this as such a huge quantity has come to Mumbai by air. The officials are now interrogating and investigating further to unearth the entire chain of heroine supply.
This was a major seizure this year, by DRI after the heroin worth Rs 100 crore was seized at Mumbai airport, from a passenger, who had arrived from Malawi, an African country, in October last. Subsequently a woman Ghanaian national was nabbed from a hotel in Delhi when she came to take the delivery of the drug.