A Kenyan woman was arrested at Chennai Airport in India after she was found in possession of cocaine valued at Sh10 million.
The woman is said to have ingested the cocaine packed in capsules totalling a weight of 1.8 kilogrammes.
In Kenya, a kilo of cocaine is estimated to be worth between Sh4 million and Sh5 million, whereas in the international market, its value can escalate to as much as Sh12 million, according to police.
She had flown in from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and upon arrival at the Indian airport, the customs department grew suspicious of her demeanour and took her in for questioning.
During the interrogation, the customs department reported that the 35-year-old was dodging their questions and her stomach seemed strange.
A body scan confirmed the customs officers’ suspicions as they discovered she had several foreign objects in her stomach.
“Based on specific intelligence, a Kenyan female passenger who arrived in Chennai from Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Airlines on December 7 was intercepted by the Air Intelligence Unit,” the customs department said in an official statement released on December 17.
“On search of her person, she egested 90 cylindrical hyperdense objects with medical assistance. These objects tested positive for cocaine, a psychotropic substance covered under the NDPS Act, 1985.”
The process of egesting all the 90 capsules from her body took two days.
She had been transported to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital where she was chemically assisted in removing the drugs from her body.
She later told law enforcement officials that she had been working for an international drug trafficking ring as a smuggler.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that she had visited several other Indian cities, such as Mumbai and Delhi, multiple times, on a tourist visa.
This is the latest such incident to happen in the area amid operations to contain drug trafficking.
Throughout 2023, several Kenyans were arrested in drug-related cases abroad.
For example, in December a Kenyan woman passenger was arrested at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport for allegedly smuggling cocaine.
She was intercepted carrying 1.4 kilos of cocaine valued at approximately Sh8 million, officials reported.
In June, Indian authorities detained a Kenyan woman at the New Delhi airport for smuggling 2.5 kilograms of cocaine from Addis Ababa, concealed in whisky bottles.
On September 24, 2023 a Kenyan car dealer was arrested in Sri Lanka, at the Bandaranaike International Airport with four kilograms of cocaine estimated worth Sh24 million.
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