Afghan trafficker swallows 80 heroin capsules, caught

An Afghan drug trafficker swallowed 80 capsules of heroin to smuggle them from Jalalabad to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport last Friday.

He was arrested by Delhi Police when he came to deliver the consignment to a contact near Oberoi Hotel in south-east Delhi on Monday.

Jumah Khan had purchased the capsules for 1,500 US dollars and was scheduled to deliver them to his contact Arif Ali.

On the direction of his handler in Afghanistan, Jumah cut up eight capsules in the capital and took out the heroin to give as sample to Arif.

“Jumah did not understand Hindi or English properly, and told police that he only knew Persian. So they arranged a Persian translator,” said a source.

Jumah told police that he had come near Oberoi Hotel to deliver the capsules along with the heroin sample to Arif.

A probe was initiated after police received information in first week of June that some Afghan nationals residing in south-east Delhi were running a drug cartel through their contacts in Rajasthan.

At 2.15 pm on Monday, the team was further informed that Arif, who hails from Rajasthan’s Sikar district, would come to Amir Khusro Park to take the delivery of heroin from an Afghan national.

Jumah came there at 5.15 pm and Arif joined him after around 10 minutes. Police had already laid a trap and overpowered them.

With the help of the Persian translator, Jumah was also apprised about his legal right that if he desires, his search can be conducted before a gazetted officer or a magistrate.

Jumah declines and the entire consignment of drugs was recovered from him.

“We are questioning the accused to ascertain the gang’s modus operandi to smuggle the drugs from Afghanistan to India,” a police officer told Deccan Herald.