Foreign nationals held with drugs

Two Zimbabwean nationals along with a South African woman were arrested on Tuesday at Indira Gandhi International Airport for trafficking drugs worth Rs 3.5 crore, CISF officials said.

Zimbabwean national Karimazondo Mike, 35, who was travelling to Johannesburg via Abu Dhabi, was intercepted at the green channel of Terminal-3 for a thorough check at 2.35 am.

“On screening and physical checking of his baggage, 25.7 kg of methaqualone worth Rs 1.23 crore was detected and recovered,” said Central Industrial Security Force spokesperson Hemendra Singh.

His two co-passengers Zimbabwean national Ncube Ellah, 45, and South African national Khumalo Shila, 41, were also offloaded from flight EY-211 of Etihad Airlines due to strong indication of drug trafficking.

“Ncube and Khumalo had completed their check-in formalities,” Singh said. On checking their four registered baggages, 65 kg of pseudoephedrine worth Rs 2.34 crore was recovered. Narcotics Control Bureau officials were also informed about the recovery.

They were then handed over to NCB officials along with the recovered drugs. NCB officials later took them into their custody for detailed investigation.

It was learnt that Ncube and Khumalo came to India on December 3 on multiple business visa, while Karimazondo came on the same day on a tourist visa.