3 foreigners arrested, heroin worth Rs 60 cr seized

The Narcotics Control Bureau has arrested three foreigners with heroin worth Rs 60 crore, officials said on Sunday. While two women from Mozambique were nabbed after they landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport allegedly with 10 kg heroin, a man from Ivory Coast and living in Greater Noida was arrested under the NDPS Act on the inputs provided by the women, said NCB Delhi Zone Director K P S Malhotra.

"The agency has busted a supply chain of heroin trafficking which was routed from Afghanistan to India via Mozambique and South Africa," he said.

"14.5 kg of high grade heroin worth an estimated Rs 60 crore has been seized."

This is a new route or to say 'reverse trafficking' of Afghan-produced heroin as it normally is trafficked to western parts of the globe after being sent to Mozambique.

"In this case the heroin, after reaching Mozambique, was trafficked to India," Malhotra said.

The two women told us they picked the contraband from Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, and were supposed to hand it over to the receiver in sector 106 of Greater Noida. The man from Ivory Coast was arrested after raids at his Greater Noida residence and over 4 kg heroin was recovered from his place, the NCB director said.