Drug mule 'pregnant' with narcotics

02 September 2015 - 02:12 By Suthentira Govender

Indian police have arrested a supposedly pregnant South African whose belly was, in fact, swollen by several packets of narcotics. The 32-year-old woman was apprehended at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, in Hyderabad, on Sunday morning after arriving from Dubai.The Times of India reported that the authorities became suspicious after analysing her passport and travel patterns over the past week. She had recently travelled to Sao Paulo, in Brazil, dubbed the cocaine capital of the world.The woman told the authorities that she was seven months pregnant but a medical examination at the airport revealed that she had concealed about 40 small packets of drugs, suspected to be cocaine, in her abdomen and genitals.She was taken to a hospital and given laxatives to flush the drugs from her body.Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Nelson Kgwete said the South African embassy would liaise with the Indian authorities to confirm the woman's nationality."They will possibly pay her a visit in detention," he said.The woman is being detained in a Hyderabad prison.Patricia Gerber, the founder of Locked Up, a body that helps South Africans imprisoned overseas, said that drug mules had been arrested in India and Turkey.She said: "The authorities are usually tipped off about these mules. They are the decoys for bigger consignments that get smuggled in. Most of these women are manipulated by the dealers into smuggling the consignments. They do it mostly out of fear because if they back out they are threatened with violence."..

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