A 25-year-old Nigerian woman, Ifeoluwa Akinwunmi, faces up to 20 years in prison in India after she was allegedly caught with illicit drugs worth over ₦1.8 billion.
Akinwunmi, reportedly a hairstylist and nail technician, was arrested last Tuesday by operatives of the Anti-Narcotics Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Bengaluru.
She was apprehended in Tarahunase village, along Rajanukunte Main Road, shortly after arriving from Delhi with a suspicious bag. A search of the bag revealed 5.325 kilograms of MDMA crystals — a banned synthetic party drug — concealed inside 11 new churidars, a traditional Indian outfit.
According to The New Indian Express, as cited by The Telegraph on Monday, Akinwunmi was acting as a courier for a drug syndicate.
“She is a courier. She had come to hand over the drugs to a group of African peddlers,” a police officer involved in the operation said. “We noticed four men on two scooters nearby, but they did not collect the parcel. Akinwunmi was arrested while standing with the bag.”
The suspect claimed she travelled to India to open a beauty salon but now faces multiple charges under India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and the Foreigners Act, 1946.
Under Section 23 of the NDPS Act, anyone caught importing, exporting, or transhipping commercial quantities of banned substances faces between 10 and 20 years in prison, along with heavy fines.
The law reads in part: “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 not less than one lakh rupees and up to two lakh rupees.”
The Foreigners Act, 1946, also allows Indian authorities to prosecute and deport foreign nationals involved in criminal activity.
Akinwunmi’s arrest came just two days after another Nigerian national, Emmanuel Bediako — also known as Maxwell — was apprehended by the Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau in a separate drug trafficking case.
