Jamaluddin (passport no. 34891381) had decided to change her route and transit through Nepal after numerous attempts via India failed, as authoities there tightened up security following a recent cocaine racket bust. Last month, Indian police arrested two Nigerians and a Ghanain at Indira Gandhi International Airport with 9 kg of cocaine, considered to be one of the biggest such seizures at that airport."Jamaluddin was successful in smuggling her fifth consignment from Brazil to Italy and the Netherlands via New Delhi in the past few months," said DIG Keshari Raj Ghimire, chief of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at Nepal Police. Quoting the Malaysian woman, the bureau said she had smuggled cocaine via Delhi to Rome and to the Netherlands twice each and from Brazil to Rome once.
Tipped off by a special source, police held the woman with the 11 kg of cocaine from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the biggest such haul there, while she was about to board a Qatar Airways flight for Doha.
"During baggage screening at TIA Departure, the cocaine was found hidden in the false bottoms of five laptop bags," DIG Ghimire said while making the woman public before the press on Sunday.
During preliminary investigations, the law enforcement agency found that a Nigerian kingpin was behind the smuggling racket. "We have started digging further into the racket with the support of INTERPOL and the call details obtained from her phone," security officials said adding, the arrested woman was a carrier who was assured of US$ 6,000 for the job.
She had arrived in Nepal on March 30 with a 15-day tourist visa and stayed at Bliss Apartment at Lazimpat, which she had booked online for US$ 180 for four days.
In January 2012, police had arrested a Thai woman with one kg of cocaine, and a Namibian man with 2.669 kg of the contraband in February, 2014. In June, 2014 a Filipino was arrested with 2.83 kg.
Cocaine, which is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant and produced mainly in South America, is consumed by the rich. Pakistan customs at Karachi port made the largest ever single cocaine haul in South Asia of 226 kg.
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