KQ passenger arrested at Mumbai airport with 22.9kgs of heroin worth Sh127m

The substance was concealed inside the trolley bags and file folders. [India Express]

Police in India have arrested a Kenya Airways (KQ) female passenger for allegedly being in possession of 22.94 kilogrammes of heroin.

The suspect has been identified as Rukshana Shaikh.

She arrived at the Mumbai International Airport from Harare, Zimbabwe on Thursday, February 16, The Indian Express reported.

According to police, the heroin worth Sh127 million was concealed in file folders and trolley bags.

"Two others, Amir Sayyed and Raees Meerza, who are Shaikh's alleged accomplices were also arrested after they showed up at the airport to pick her up," The Indian Express reported.

Tip-off

Police said they received a tip-off from an informant that Shaikh was trafficking drugs.

The Hindustan Times reported that Shaikh went to Zimbabwe via Addis Ababa on February 7. In Harare, an African woman gave her two bags in a hotel. Shaikh is alleged to have known that the bags contained narcotics and accepted to smuggle the drugs to India, The Hindustan Times reported.

At the Mumbai airport, authorities recovered the drugs disguised as cream-coloured granules.

"On examination, the substance tested positive for heroin. She had tried to conceal the substance inside the trolley bags and file folders," said India's Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).

Preliminary investigations revealed that the other two suspects were acting on instructions of a Nigerian national based in Delhi, India, police said.

KQ comment

Kenya Airways had not released a statement by the time of publishing this story, but The Standard sent the airline an email for comment.

A source at the airline, however, told The Standard that Shaikh was a connecting passenger, and that her luggage could not be scanned again at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi because it had already been checked in Harare.