Zim woman arrested in India

A ZIMBABWEAN woman was on Monday arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport in India with close to three kilogrammes of methamphetamine after she allegedly tried to smuggle the illegal drug to Manila in the Philippines via Goa, which is in Western India.

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive and illegal psychostimulant drug that is used for its powerful euphoric effects, which are similar to those of cocaine.

According to international media reports, India’s Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials got a tip-off from the Narcotics Control Bureau about a foreign woman carrying drugs on Monday.

“On the same evening, Ms Betty Rame, a Zimbabwe citizen, reached the departure terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 8.30am to catch a flight to Goa. Just as she was about to enter the airport from Gate 3, a security official stopped her,” according to reports.

Ms Rame was reportedly whisked away and ordered to surrender her baggage for checking.

When the officers passed her suitcase through the X-BIS machine, officials spotted an image which looked suspicious.

On lifting it, it seemed unusually heavy.

The CISF staff then cut open the false cover to find a packet weighing about three kilogrammes.

On closer inspection, they realised the packet contained popular party drug methamphetamine or “ice”.

“About 3 kilogrammes of methamphetamine, a party drug also known as ‘ice’, was recovered from the bag of the woman who hails from Zimbabwe. She was handed over to the NCB,” a CISF official was quoted saying.

The woman has been handed over to the Narcotics Control Bureau in Delhi for further questioning.

The CISF said Ms Rame took the drugs from an African peddler in Delhi.

Reports are that she reached Mumbai from Zimbabwe on March 20 and had visited India earlier in November last year.

Methamphetamine or “Meth” is prepared from another drug called ephedrine, which has a huge demand in India and abroad.