A 25-year-old Nigerian woman, Ifeoluwa Akinwunmi, faces up to 20 years in prison in India after allegedly being found with drugs valued at more than N1.8bn.
Akinwunmi, said to be a hairstylist and nail artist, was arrested last Tuesday by officials from the Anti-Narcotics Wing of the Central Crime Branch in Bengaluru.
She was picked up at Tarahunase village, located along Rajanukunte Main Road, after arriving from Delhi with a suspicious bag.
According to The New Indian Express, the bag held 5.325 kilograms of MDMA crystals, a banned party drug.
The drugs were hidden among 11 newly purchased churidars — traditional Indian outfits.
“She is a courier. She had come to hand over the drugs to a group of African peddlers.
We noticed four men on two scooters in the area, but they did not collect the parcel. Akinwunmi was arrested while standing with the bag,” a police officer involved in the operation was quoted as saying.
The suspect, who claimed her purpose for visiting India was to open a beauty salon, is now being charged under India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and the Foreigners Act, 1946.
Section 23 of the NDPS Act prescribes strict penalties for individuals found importing, exporting, or transhipping narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
The Indian legal code states that anyone caught with a commercial quantity — such as the MDMA found with Akinwunmi — faces a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years, alongside significant fines.
The section states, “Where the contravention involves commercial quantity, [the offender shall be punished] with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than ten years but which may extend to twenty years and shall also be liable to a fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees.”
Under the Foreigners Act of 1946, the Indian government is also empowered to prosecute and deport foreigners involved in criminal offenses.
Akinwunmi’s case follows closely behind the arrest of another Nigerian national, Emmanuel Bediako, also known as Maxwell, by the Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau for alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
