Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday seized 2.9 kilograms of cocaine from Victor David, a Venezuelan national, who landed at the international airport here on Saturday morning.
Acting on a tip-off, the sleuths intercepted Victor and found the contraband concealed in two packets inside his checked-in baggage. Preliminary investigations suggested that Victor is acting as a carrier for an international drug cartel based out of Brazil.
A detailed verification of the accused’s passport showed that he had landed in Kochi around 10 a.m from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Dubai. The accused is currently being interrogated and will be produced before a Magistrate later in the day.
The seizure is the fifth such case to be reported from the international airport over the past ten months. During the period, the NCB has confiscated cocaine having an estimated illicit market value of around ₹60 crore. Cocaine is a strong stimulant narcotic contraband mostly used as a recreational drug. It is commonly snorted, or injected into the vein as a solution.
While Brazil remained the single most important shipping point for all these contrabands, all but one of the carriers were from South America.
