Passenger smuggling cocaine Rs 50 crore worth arrested at Hyderabad airport

HYDERABAD: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized 5 kg of cocaine, a narcotic drug, worth Rs 50 crore at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. The contraband was concealed in the false bottom of a check-in suitcase and in the artificial compartment of handbags of four ladies carried in the check-in baggage.

The passenger had traveled from Laos to Hyderabad via Singapore and was on his way to Delhi. The cocaine, being a narcotic drug under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985, has been seized. The passenger has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

The DRI said that the seizure was made based on specific intelligence. The officers of the DRI intercepted the passenger's luggage and found the cocaine concealed in the false bottoms. The cocaine is valued at around Rs. 50 crore in the international grey market. The DRI is further investigating the matter to trace the other members of the syndicate involved in smuggling the cocaine.