The book where the cocaine was hidden

A  23-year-old Indian woman has been arrested at  the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport  trying to smuggle cocaine worth Rs 10 crore($1.4m) into the country.

The woman was said to be carrying the drug for a Nigerian gang.

The Times of India reported that the Indian   fell for an all-expense paid foreign holiday, unaware that the Nigerian picking her bill,  would conceal 1.9-kg cocaine in the covers of books that she would be asked to deliver on her return to India.

She picked  up the books  from an international passenger at the Dubai International airport lounge. She was meant to hand the books  over to her contacts, the drug peddler friends,  in India. However, the plan went awry and she has ended up behind bars.

The arrested woman, Jyothija, is a New Delhi resident. She landed at the Hyderabad airport from Dubai during transit to New Delhi. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths recovered two international flight tickets: New Delhi-Dubai, Dubai-Hyderabad; and a domestic ticket: Hyderabad-New Delhi, which she was supposed to use at the RGI Airport, but was nabbed before she completed the last leg of her travel.

On questioning, the courier said she met a man with ‘black’ complexion at the Dubai international airport lounge on the instruction of a recently-befriended Nigerian person. The stranger gave her a few books, which contained the contraband.

The woman, reportedly told interrogators, she first met her Nigerian friend at a mall in New Delhi when the latter was involved in a fight with a shop owner. She played the role of a peace maker.

“Since then, the two became friends and over a period of time they became close. However, the Nigerian started laying a trap and used her innocence in getting the drug consignment. He lured her with a four-day international holiday to Dubai and she fell for it. Her Nigerian friend informed her that she has to collect a few books at the international lounge and get them to India,” the Times of India reported.

“In Dubai, if any person is caught with narcotics, they get death penalty. In this case, the book supplier landed from some other country to Dubai and met the woman at the Dubai airport’s lounge and passed on the consignment.

It was the first time an Indian woman has been used for smuggling drugs into the country by narcotic gangs.

The woman has been charged at a criminal court and she might get a 10-year jail term if convicted.