A Kenya Airways passenger was arrested in India for trying to smuggle heroin worth Sh127 million.

The female passenger was arrested at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said.

The passenger arrived in India from Harare via Nairobi on board a Kenya Airways flight, police quoted by local media said.

The DRI said the suspect, who was identified as Rukshana Shaikh, upon interrogation said the drugs were handed over to her in Harare and the same was to be delivered to two persons in Mumbai.

An official said, that examination of the passenger baggage resulted in the recovery and seizure of cream-coloured granules.

On testing with a narcotics field testing kit, the substance tested positive for the presence of ‘heroin’, a narcotic drug covered under the NDPS Act,1985, the official added.

According to the officers, the substance was concealed inside the trolley bags and file folders and it is valued at approximately Sh127 million (Rs 84 Crores) in the illicit market.

DRI officers also identified and arrested the said recipients who had come to receive the passenger and the contraband outside the airport.

According to the police in India, the two suspects were acting on instructions of a Nigerian national based in Delhi.

The police said in the past the suspects had similarly made two individuals smuggle drugs from Zimbabwe and Kenya.