By NewsGram Staff-Writer

A South African woman has been found with 40 small pouches of narcotic drugs inside her body at the Hyderabad airport.

The lady was posing as being pregnant when she was held by Narcotics Control Board (NCB) officials on Sunday. The 32 year old women named Mosiea Moosa was aboard on an Emirates flight from Dubai.

The doctors at the government-run Osmania General Hospital, who had recovered 16 packets till late Sunday night, extracted 24 more packets on Monday. The pouches recovered so far are estimated to contain 450 grams of narcotic drug, suspected to be cocaine. This is estimated to be valued at Rs. 1 crore in the international market.

The woman had difficulty in walking and when questioned by NCB sleuths, she claimed to be seven months pregnant. However, the officials felt suspicious by her travel pattern over the last few days. The South African national was first taken to a corporate hospital near the airport, where she admitted that packets of narcotics were concealed in her body. She was later shifted to Osmania Hospital and kept under medical supervision. A series of tests were conducted by doctors. The hospital authorities clarified that no surgery was conducted.

Moosa, who had concealed the narcotic substance in her belly and uro-genital tract, was given laxatives to naturally extract the pouches. A hospital official said more tests were being conducted to know if there are more sachets of drugs in her body.

Investigations by the NCB revealed that Mosiea flew to Dubai from Johannesburg on August 23. The next day, she landed in Sao Paulo City, Brazil. She returned to Dubai on August 28 and from there took a flight to Hyderabad.

The officials suspect that the woman procured the contraband from Brazil and managed to smuggle it into Dubai. The NCB sleuths were questioning the woman to identify the person or people to whom she was to deliver the drugs.

With inputs from IANS