4 kg cocaine worth Rs 30 crore seized, 2 African women held

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sleuths have seized 4 kg cocaine, worth Rs 30 crore in the international market, from the possession of two African women.

The accused, identified as Zambian national Thelma Mkandawire, 38, and Tanzanian national Pamela D Kiritta, 41, were arrested from a hotel near the airport on Friday.

The NCB had been close on the heels of Mkandawire ever since she came to the Capital from Sao Paulo in Brazil via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. She was apprehended as soon as she checked in to a hotel in the Mahipalpur area. Kiritta had allegedly come to receive the consignment Mkandawire was carrying, and was also nabbed from the spot.

"The contraband was hidden in a suitcase cavity," Madho Singh, NCB Zonal Director, Delhi said.

Further probe by the NCB revealed that Mkandawire had been arrested in Pakistan in 2015 on similar charges. Kiritta had been living in Vasant Kunj since her arrival in India in January this year. She revealed to the NCB that since 2006, she had visited India as many as nine times, besides visiting other African countries, including Ecuador and Kenya. She claimed that she had been working for a South African man in India.

The agency is now trying to ascertain the identity of other contacts of both the women, who have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).