Passenger held with 5 kg cocaine at Hyderabad airport

Hyderabad, Sep 2 (PTI) A male passenger was arrested from the international airport here for allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine worth Rs 50 crore into the country, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said on Saturday.

Basing on specific intelligence, the DRI officers seized cocaine, a banned drug under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985, at the airport from the passenger on September 1, an official release said.

The contraband, wrapped in brown tape, was cleverly concealed in the false bottom of a check-in suitcase and in false bottoms of four ladies’ handbags carried in the check-in baggage, it said.

The passenger had travelled from Laos to Hyderabad via Singapore and was on his way to Delhi.

A total of five kilograms of cocaine, valued at around Rs 50 crore in the international grey market, was seized and the passenger has been arrested and remanded in judicial custody, the release said.

Further investigations are underway, the DRI added.