The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday seized 1 kg of heroin from a woman passenger at the international airport here.
Investigators said the 50-year-old Thrissur native, who they chose not to identify officially for purposes of investigation, was booked on a Qatar Airways flight to Kuwait. The drug, valued at nearly Rs.1 crore, was concealed in her check-in baggage.
Investigators said her arrest apparently signalled a resurgence in smuggling of heroin to the Gulf .
Officials suspect that the drug was possibly processed from a crop of opium illegally diverted from licensed farms under government control in Rajasthan or Maharashtra.
They said the possibility of sourcing the drug from Afghanistan or Pakistan “was bleak,” given the geo-political situation in the region and tightened borders. Moreover, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam, which relied on large-scale foreign sale of heroin consignments smuggled through mainland India to fund its armed campaign against the Sri Lankan government, had been, for years, neutralised.
Consequently, the street availability of heroin in south India had also drastically reduced. Many users shifted to a cheaper option, buprenorphine, a synthetic opiate globally retailed as a prescription drug.
Investigators said the drug was bound for Kuwait, a relatively new destination. Kerala has rarely been a transit point for narcotic consignments to that country. The suspect was produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.
