Kenyan arrested with 1.7 kilogrammes of cocaine worth Sh300 million in India
Media reports indicate that Rodha arrived in Mumbai via Doha, Qatar, before she was intercepted by customs officials at the airport
A 43-year-old Kenyan woman is being detained in India after she was arrested by Customs officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Tuesday with cocaine worth Ksh 300 million.
The suspect was identified as Emily Rodha, was smuggling the cocaine into India, having concealed it in her trolley bag.
Reports by the Indian Express indicate that Rodha had arrived in Mumbai via Doha, Qatar, before she was intercepted by the officials at the airport.
“The customs department on Wednesday stated that based on spot profiling, one passenger, Emily Rodha, aged 43 years, who arrived from Nairobi to Mumbai via Doha in flight QR1342/6E1304, was intercepted by the customs officers at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport with a powdered substance purported to be cocaine,” the Indian Express reported.
It indicated that the cocaine weighed 1,789 grams.
After a thorough interrogation, the Kenyan was placed under arrest as per relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for smuggling commercial quantities of drugs.
Further reports indicated that Emily was given the consignment in Nairobi by another woman who promised to pay her Sh1 million once the Cocaine was successfully delivered to her associate in Delhi.
The Indian Customs officials are also checking her travel history to find whether she smuggled narcotics or any other banned or restricted items to India in the past, even as the investigators are also trying to find out details of her other associates involved in the smuggling racket.
The arrest of Rodha comes even as 37-year-old Margaret Nduta is facing execution in Vietnam for smuggling cocaine into the country.
However, her execution was delayed after the Kenyan Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary, Korir Sing’Oei, made a call to his counterpart in Vietnam, which later resulted in an appeal by the Kenyan ambassadors in Thailand were sent to negotiate a stay in the execution of the 37-year-old lady from Murang’a.
