Heroin worth Rs 54 crore seized from South African woman

Hyderabad: In yet another incident of high value drug seizure at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, the Custom Officials on Friday detained a South African woman with 6.76 kilograms of heroin, valued at about Rs 54 crore in the international grey market.

According to Customs officials, it was based on passenger profiling that officers of the Air Intelligence Unit, Hyderabad Customs at RGIA identified and intercepted the 26-year-old South African national, who arrived from Johannesburg via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight (No. QR-500) on Friday.

On examination of her checked baggage, five women's handbags and two file folders were found. When these were cut open, officials found 14 black plastic packets concealed in the side walls and layers of the handbags and the file folders. The plastic packets were found to contain brownish white powder, which on testing with Narcotic Drug Detection Kit turned out to be heroin.

The passenger has been arrested under the Narcotics Drugs amd Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Further investigation is in progress, officials said.