Afro woman hides drug in sanitary napkin, held

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Mumbai, has arrested a 25-year-old Cameroon national for allegedly trying to smuggle heroin out of the country.

Prisca Abhang had stuffed 150 grams of the contraband in capsules and had hidden them in her sanitary napkin, NCB officials said.

She was arrested at the Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport on Saturday before boarding a flight to South Africa, the officials said. She had come to Mumbai from Delhi, they said.

The officials said they were tipped off that Abhang was carrying heroin. “Initially, the accused refused to allow us to search her,” a senior NCB officer said. “Later she relented. A woman officer from the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs department frisked her and found the capsules of heroin hidden in the sanitary napkin she was wearing,” the officer said. 

During interrogation, Abhang told the NCB officials that she got the drug from two Delhi residents, the officer said. The NCB is looking for the two. 

“She is well-educated and has completed advanced schooling in Cameroon,” the NCB officer said. “She told us that this was the first time that she got involved in a criminal activity.

“The drug she was trying to smuggle out of the country is valued at nearly Rs2 lakh in the Indian market and nearly Rs20 lakh in the international market,” the officer added. 

Abhang has been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and sent to judicial custody till February 27.