Kenyan Woman, 43, Arrested in India for Smuggling Hard Drugs in Stomach

Indian authorities have arrested a 43-year-old Kenyan woman, Florence Indangasi, at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport after she was found smuggling hard drugs by swallowing drug pellets.

Indangasi had arrived in Mumbai from Nairobi on Friday, July 11, when officers from India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), acting on a tip-off, intercepted and interrogated her. Initial searches of her luggage and clothing revealed nothing suspicious. However, during questioning, the woman confessed to having ingested six pellets filled with a white powdery substance.

She was immediately taken to JJ Hospital under court approval, where medical staff successfully extracted the pellets from her stomach. Lab tests later confirmed the contents were 665.5 grams of hard drugs.

Authorities believe Indangasi was acting as a courier for a larger drug trafficking syndicate and investigations are ongoing to identify the intended recipient of the drugs in Mumbai.

This arrest is the latest in a series of drug trafficking incidents involving Kenyan nationals traveling to India. In April, 34-year-old Emily Rodha was arrested at the same airport after arriving from Nairobi with drugs allegedly worth millions. Earlier, a 25-year-old woman, Caroline Wanjiku Mwangi, was caught at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport while attempting to board a flight to Goa with 1.3 kilograms of narcotics hidden in her luggage.

Meanwhile, Kenyan authorities continue cracking down on drug-related crimes. In a separate incident, Mombasa-based detectives arrested 40-year-old Ali Bakari Ali after discovering 600 grams of drugs worth KSh 1.8 million hidden under his mattress during a house raid in Kikambala.

As cross-border trafficking cases mount, law enforcement agencies in both Kenya and India are intensifying efforts to dismantle international drug smuggling networks.