Bolivian national held for trafficking 2.8 kg cocaine

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested a Bolivian national, Sergio Jie Zhang Salazar, for trafficking 2.8 kg of fine quality Bolivian cocaine from Latin America to Delhi.

He was intercepted by the Delhi Unit of NCB at a hotel, after being tailed from the IGI Airport.

The accused has so far told investigators that he was working for a Bolivia-based gang and had visited Bangladesh in October last year to deliver a consignment of cocaine. The investigators are currently interrogating him to identify the remaining members of the gang. This is the fifth such seizure by the NCB team in the last two months.

According to Delhi Zonal Director Madho Singh, the agency had received secret inputs regarding the movement of the drug trafficker. "We had received information that the accused would reach IGI Airport on Saturday. We had deputed a team for surveillance and eventually in the afternoon he was identified and tailed to a hotel in South Delhi".

The team waited for sometime outside the hotel and after a signal was issued they raided his room and managed to apprehend him with the cocaine, which was stashed in a baggage. "The accused had concealed the cocaine in various cavities in the baggage. The X-ray machines at the airport also could not detect the contraband," said an intelligence officer of NCB.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that he was given the cocaine from a Bolivia-based peddler. He had travelled from Bolivia to São Paulo, Brazil by road.

"After he travelled by road, he took a flight from São Paulo to Lome (Togo) and eventually reached Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and used the eastern African route to reach New Delhi," the officer added.

The accused further revealed that he had travelled to Bangladesh in October last year and had been involved in drug trafficking for the past few years.

The agency is now going to ascertain the identity of one of the handlers sitting in India and South America.