Afghan who left 6 kg heroin at IGI arrested

NEW DELHI: An Afghan national who escaped from IGI Airport after abandoning a bag containing 6 kg of heroin on July 7 was arrested by customs officials on Thursday. The accused, Mir Hamza, had been identified earlier, during investigation. He was nabbed when he landed in Delhi on Ariana Airlines flight FG-311.
Customs officials said that on July 7, they had found a bag lying in the arrival hall of Terminal 3.On inspection, they found three polythene packets wrapped in carbon paper containing 6 kg of heroin hidden in a cavity at the bottom of the bag.
"We managed to identify the person who had brought the bag into the country. When we checked his records, we found that he had flown out of India two days after his arrival.
The intelligence unit and air customs preventive kept surveillance on various flights arriving from Afghanistan. We finally managed to nab the accused on Thursday," said a senior official. Hamza, a resident of Kandahar, has been arrested under section 67 of the NDPS Act, 1985.
Officials said that this time he was not carrying any contraband and they checked all passengers and even the aircraft to ensure that there were no other carriers on the flight. The international market price of the seized heroin is Rs 9 crore while local market value is Rs 30 lakh.
The same day on which Hamza left behind his bag, another Afghan passenger was arrested for carrying four packets of heroin. Customs officials stopped 20-year-old passenger Mohamad Sabir, also a resident of Kandahar, after he was seen opening bags on the conveyor belt. When his bag was scanned, it was found to contain a false bottom that contained the heroin. Sabir was placed under arrest under the NDPS Act, 1985.