Cocaine worth Rs10 cr recovered from Nigerian's tummy

A Nigerian national swallowed as many as 90 capsules of cocaine, in exchange of just Rs 66,000, to deliver them to his accomplice in New Delhi. Okonkwoh Mondaytony landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Tuesday from Ethiopia, where the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sleuths nabbed him. The capsules recovered from his body weighed 1.3 kg and are estimated to be worth around Rs 10 crore, officials said.

A team of officials from the NCB Delhi Zonal Unit, headed by Superintendent Jaikishan, intercepted Mondaytony on the basis of passenger profiling. He had arrived in an Ethiopian airline flight.

"Mondaytony was asked to cooperate in personal frisking and baggage checking. He told the team that he came to India to take care of some business. The NCB team then became more suspicious as he had a tourist visa," Deputy Director General (DDG) RP Singh said.

The Nigerian national was then brought to the Safdarjung Hospital, where doctors detected something in his stomach during a medical examination.

"An X-ray examination confirmed the presence of drug capsules. He was kept in the hospital for two days, during which time 90 capsules of cocaine were recovered from his stomach," the officer said.

The accused then revealed that he had ingested the capsules at a guesthouse in Lagos, Nigeria. It took him at least three hours to swallow all the capsules. Then he boarded a flight to Addis Ababa, from where he boarded another flight to New Delhi. He added that he was supposed to deliver the drug to another Nigerian in Delhi.

"We have identified the receivers and further investigation is underway,"the officer said.