Drugs in cricket kit

22 April 2015 - 02:17 By Suthentira Govender

A South African woman has been nabbed at a New Delhi airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 19kg of narcotics concealed in cricket gear and shoes out of India. The woman, identified as Lynette Nosipho, 22, was about to board a flight to Addis Ababa on Sunday night when airport authorities caught her with the haul, worth about R100000.Hemendra Singh, spokesman for the Central Industrial Security Force, said Nosipho, who was travelling on a tourist visa, was detained while passing through a security checkpoint.Singh said: "When her baggage was scanned, 16 packets containing over 19kg of narcotics were found."The drugs were hidden inside arm guards worn by cricketers, ladies' shoes and a laptop bag.She was found with pseudoephedrine, a popular party drug in New Delhi, and over 2kg of heroin.Singh said the Narcotics Control Bureau was investigating while she remains in custody.The SA High Commission in New Delhi said yesterday it had not yet been informed of Nosipho's arrest.In the past two years India's capital city has emerged as a major supplier of pseudo-ephedrine - the key raw material for manufacturing illegal amphetamines.Patricia Gerber, director of Locked Up, a body that helps South African drug mules in prisons overseas, said more young women were being caught in India, Hong Kong and Turkey for drug-related crimes."Drug kingpins are targeting young, vulnerable women. It is horrific," said Gerber...

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