South African woman with Rs 5 crore cocaine in stomach held in Chennai

Chennai: A 24-year-old South African who swallowed 86 capsules containing cocaine worth Rs 5 crore in Brazil and flew to Chennai to deliver the drug was arrested by sleuths from the narcotics control bureau as soon she landed here.

She was identified as Molefe Keditlwaetse Lizzie. “She was intercepted at the airport on Saturday. Lizzie was flying from Sao Paulo in Brazil to Chennai via Abu Dhabi. She had 990 gms of cocaine in her possession. She came on a tourist visa and was planning to leave the country after delivering the consignment,” Prem Anand Sinha, zonal director of NCB, told this newspaper.

According to NCB officials the modus operandi is to swallow the capsules containing cocaine and make sure the same is collected from excreta within 48 hours. “It is very risky. If the capsules break inside the stomach the transporter can get killed because of drug overdose,” noted a NCB official. For a successful delivery the woman may have received up to $15,000.

NCB officials noted that the South American cartels seem to expanding their business by delivering drugs to India directly rather than through other countries and agents.

Although the seizure was made in Chennai, the seized cocaine is believed to have been for distribution across metros in various states.

This seizure, along with four other cocaine seizures made by NCB, Chennai in the last ten months, has dealt a severe blow to the cocaine syndicate operating in the southern states, the NCB officer claimed.

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