Eight foreigners held in Delhi with seven kg heroin

New Delhi, April 14 (IANS) The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Tuesday arrested eight foreign nationals in the capital and recovered seven kg heroin, worth Rs.70 million in the international market, from them, an official said.

The arrested were five Nigerian men, two Mozambique women and a Thai woman.

The Nigerian men were identified as Jude Chidiebere, 26, Solomon, 27, Goson Augustine, 33, Godfrey, 28, and Vincent, 25. The Mozambican women were identified as Maria Luisa, 26, and Isabel Bonifacio, 26, while the Thai was identified as Supattra, 24.

The seven were arrested from Santgarh in Tilak Nagar area of west Delhi and seven kg of heroin originating from southwest Asian countries seized from them.

It is the first time that such a large number of foreign nationals has been arrested in Delhi on charges of drug trafficking.

'The modus operandi of the syndicate was to conceal the drugs in suitcases and articles of daily use and then dispatch the contraband to various destinations in South Africa, Australia and Europe by using South African, Thai or Nigerian female couriers,' said NCB Director (Delhi Zone) Sandeep Mittal.