EX-ARMY OFFICER FROM ZAMBIA CAUGHT WITH ₹26-CRORE HEROIN
MUMBAI: The Mumbai zonal unit of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested a former army official of Zambia from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), Mumbai and seized more than 4kg of heroin, worth approximately ₹26 crore, hidden in the cavities of his trolley bag.
The accused, Kenith Mulowa, 42, is a retired army officer from Lusaka, Zambia. He travelled from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Dubai, then to Delhi, and then to Mumbai. He had arrived in India on a business Visa.
In order to evade getting caught while travelling with the bag with contraband, he deliberately left it at the Dubai airport and arrived in Mumbai via Delhi. He then lodged a missing bag’s complaint at CSMIA and went to a hotel in Juhu for stay.
As NCB officers had already received inputs about Mulowa’s suspicious involvement in drugs trafficking, they kept a close watch on his movements from airport to hotel and hotel to airport for two days.
On Friday when Mulowa arrived at the airport entry area to collect his bag, he was apprehended by NCB officers. On examining the bag, NCB found three packets of heroin weighing around 4kg from hidden cavities. The drugs could be from Afghanistan, said investigators.
“The accused is a Zambian ex-army officer and was injured in combat operation. He retired from the army on medical grounds. His wife and four kids live in Lusaka. This was the third time Mulowa had arrived in India and we are checking if he smuggled drugs on his previous visits,” said Sameer Wankhede, zonal director of NCB.