Foreign national arrested from Mumbai airport for smuggling cocaine worth Rs 34.96 crore

Representational pic

The officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) apprehended a Liberian national at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (CSMI) Airport in Mumbai for allegedly attempting to smuggle cocaine into the country.

Acting on intelligence inputs, the DRI detained the passenger who had arrived from Sierra Leone on Friday. During an inspection of his trolley bag, the officers found it unusually heavy even after emptying it. Following a thorough examination, the officers discovered two packets of a white powdery substance which were concealed in the bag's false bottom.

Upon testing the substance with a field test kit, they confirmed that the substance was cocaine. The seized consignment weighed 3,496 grams and holds an estimated value of Rs 34.96 crore in the illicit market. The passenger was arrested on the spot, and further investigations are underway.