The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has busted a trans-continental drug racket with the seizure of cocaine worth Rs 7.35 crore from a Zambian woman passenger at the Mumbai international airport, an official said on Friday.
The woman, Emile Mulinde, seemed to be acting as a `mule' (drug carrier), he said.
Mulinde was intercepted by a DRI team after her arrival here from Addis Ababa on Thursday, A special pocket in the ladies purse in her checked-in baggage was found to have 700 grams of cocaine inside, the official said.
The contraband was worth Rs 7.35 crore in the illicit market, he said, adding that the woman was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
She allegedly told DRI sleuths that somebody handed over the package to her in Addis Ababa and she was supposed to deliver it in Mumbai. She was doing this as she needed money badly, she said.
A court sent her in judicial custody till July 8, the official said.
