Single tip at Bengaluru airport helps NCB seize 35 kg of heroin

A single tip-off has helped seize nearly 35 kg of heroin and neutralise an entire syndicate of drug dealers in the country, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said on Friday.

The drug haul could be worth Rs 52.5 crore going by the price of heroin in the international market (Rs 1.5 crore per kg).

It took the NCB just a couple of days to identify and trace the Nigerian kingpin and nine of his associates, seven of whom are women.

It all started with a tip-off, according to Amit Ghawate, Zonal Director, NCB, Bengaluru Zonal Unit.

Based on passenger profiling, NCB officers picked up a woman flying in from Zimbabwe at the city’s Kempegowda International Airport on May 24. A search showed 7 kg of heroin concealed in the false bottom of a suitcase that she carried. She was arrested along with another woman accomplice.

Based on the women’s questioning, the NCB searched a hotel room where they were staying and discovered another 6.89 kg of heroin stashed in similar baggage.

Things didn’t end there. Technical investigations led NCB officers to three more women who had left Bengaluru for Delhi by the Rajdhani Express. The NCB team at Indore rushed to Itarsi, in Madhya Pradesh, and caught three more women from a hotel there.

As much as 21 kg of heroin stuffed in three trolley bags was seized from them.

The NCB, Ghawate said, kept investigating and managed to track down a Nigerian national who was masterminding it all from Delhi. Three African women were also arrested.

According to the NCB, heroin is an opioid used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects and is a potent and dangerous depressant drug.

“It is a commonly abused drug. Its side effects are dangerous to the human body. Long-term usage changes the physical structure and physiology of the brain, creating long-term imbalances in neuronal and hormonal systems that are not easily reversed,” it said.