Officials attached to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Wednesday seized around 5 kg of heroin from a Zambian woman who arrived from Qatar at the Calicut International Airport.
Officials said Bishala Soko, 31, was stopped by authorities after arriving at the airport on a Qatar Airways flight. He had hidden heroin worth Rs 30 crore in his checked-in baggage.
He said Soko with a valid Indian visa had arrived in Doha from Cape Town in South Africa.
He informed investigators that he had received a package from a person in Cape Town to deliver to an agent in Kozhikode. DRI sources said that he was caught on the basis of intelligence inputs.
sent
Soko was charged under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. He was produced before the court and sent to judicial custody. Further investigation was on, officials said.
The seizure follows the seizure of around 3,000 kg of Afghan heroin from two containers at the Mundra port in Gujarat last week. The DRI had arrested five people, including two Afghan nationals, in connection with the incident.
Taliban Link
Officials suspect a possible Taliban-Pakistan link in the smuggling of high-quality heroin into India.
In August, the DRI arrested an African-origin man with a cocaine capsule at the Kempegowda airport in Bengaluru. He too had reached via West Asia. Also, three cases were registered at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. In July, a Zambian national was also arrested at the airport.
DRI officials suspect that the consignment of heroin seized at Indian airports had links to the Taliban. African drug cartels were carrying out the operation, although the Taliban is the source of the heroin.