The NCB officials have also learned that the drug operatives tell girls that they would fund their trip to India, and then drug them and insert contraband substances in their rectum using an air pump when the girls are unconscious.
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sleuths have learned that South American drug syndicates use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to lure students, mostly girls, and then use them as mules for carrying drugs.
The NCB officials have also learned that the drug operatives tell girls that they would fund their trip to India, and then drug them and insert contraband substances in their rectum using an air pump when the girls are unconscious.
The NCB officials, following a tip-off, had arrested 24-year-old Tanzanian national Sofiya Basikoro at the international airport in Mumbai a few months ago. When she was scanned, a large number of foreign objects were detected in her rectum. It took the medical team from the state-run JJ Hospital five days to recover all 78 pellets containing 946g of cocaine.
During her custodial interrogation, Basikoro revealed how she was left with no option but to become part of a drug syndicate and work as a mule for them. "Through her interrogation, we learned that students, mostly Brazilian and Tanzanian girls, are targeted by the syndicate, operating from Sao Paulo, through Facebook and Twitter. They are tempted with love, money and sometimes an all-expenses paid trip abroad," said an NCB official, requesting anonymity.
Basikoro, too, was befriended through social media and lured into a honey trap. "As per Basikoro, a syndicate operative met her regularly and also told her that he would fund a short-package tour to India for her. The syndicate operative took her to lavish hotels, spiked her drink with intoxicants and inserted pellets containing cocaine through her anus into her rectum, using a pump. The process was done in a way that the contraband would remain in the body unaffected for seven to 10 days," the official said.
When she regained consciousness, Basikoro was told that cocaine had been inserted in her body. "Basikoro was told about how to remove the pellets once she reaches Mumbai and was also given the contact number of the receiver. Her air expenses and hotel stay for a three-day Mumbai trip was sponsored by the syndicate. This is a dangerous modus operandi that is used by the South American drug syndicate to ferry their drugs to other countries," the official said.
Later, the NCB sleuths had arrested a man who was a part of the syndicate and had fled to Nepal after Basikoro's arrest.
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