Customs authorities have seized narcotic drugs valued at around ₹8 crore in the international market from a Benin national while trying to smuggle out the drugs through an international courier agency here.

The seized drugs include 4 kg heroine valued at ₹7 crore and 300 grams of methamphetamine, valued at ₹1 crore. Judee Mitchel, who carried a Benin passport, was arrested while booking consignments to Australia, Greece, Spain and the Netherlands at the Kochi office of the agency.

Nationality uncertain Customs Commissioner KN Raghavan told Business Line that Mithecl’s nationality was being verified with the Beninese Embassy in Delhi as the same person had booked another consignment with the courier agency a few months back in another name with a Sierra Leone passport.

Raghavan said the courier agency was searched on an intelligence input from the Delhi Customs who had recently made a similar drugs seizure involving West Africans. Mitchel was arrested under the Narcotics Act and a coordinated investigation is on.

Raghavan said Mitchel seemed to be part of a Delhi-centric drug ring involving African nationals who used India to traffic drugs coming from across the border. The telephone call history of Mitchel, who has been in India for a year, could throw up more information, Raghavan added.

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