Drugs smuggled using courier services, says NCB; two arrested
MUMBAI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in two separate cases this week, arrested a Nigerian national and a woman suspected of smuggling drugs abroad. Couriers services are being used to smuggle narcotics from the country, said NCB officers.
In the first case, Sandra Edward D’silva, 50, resident of Seawoods in Navi Mumbai, was arrested on for allegedly smuggling Ephedrine. Around 990 grams of the drug have been seized from a private courier company’s hub in Andheri. “The contraband was destined for Maseru in Lesotho. We seized the drugs based on a tip off and arrested the woman, who had booked the parcel containing the drug,” said a senior NCB officer.
In the second case, a consignment containing marijuana, weighing 4.6kg, were seized from a courier hub in the city. The consignment had been booked from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and was to be shipped to Doha, Qatar.
“The accused who had booked the consignment is a Nigerian national. We traced him and arrested him from Kadachanallur in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu,” said the officer. The agency has not revealed the name of the accused in this case, owing to ongoing investigations.
The agency has now sent drugs seized in both cases for chemical analysis. The agency suspects involvement of more people and are investigating to find out whether the accused are part of an international drug cartel. Courier hubs in metros are being used due to better ait connectivity, said NCB sources.