Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials found 99 capsules containing cocaine worth ₹20 crore in the stomach of a Nigerian. Terming it one of the biggest catches of 2023, they said that the accused was caught on December 11 by alert officials as soon as he landed at Kempegowda international airport in Bengaluru from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The accused, aged around 40 years, had a Nigerian passport and came to India on a medical visa.
On being alerted, officials confronted him. They escorted him to an interrogation chamber where he confessed to swallowing capsules containing cocaine before boarding the flight in Addis Ababa. The officials obtained a court order to take him to a hospital where, under medical supervision, all the capsules were extracted over a period of five days.
The Nigerian was booked under the NDPS Act and remanded to judicial custody.
Investigators found out that the accused had planned to take a domestic flight to Delhi after landing in Bengaluru. He was scheduled to hand over the smuggled drugs to handlers in the capital.
