Heroin worth Rs 21 crore was seized from an Indian national who arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on a flight from Nairobi on Friday, Customs officials said.

“On basis of spot profiling, Air Customs at IGIA, Delhi arrested an Indian national arriving from Nairobi and recovered 3 kg of heroin valued at Rs 21 crores. The heroine was concealed in the false bottom of his bag,” the Customs Department said in a statement.

The individual has been arrested and further investigations are being carried out to track down the drug smuggling network involved in the operation.

Smuggling of drugs via Africa is on the rise. A Delhi Police team had also busted an international narcotic drug cartel last month with the arrest of three Africans. The police recovered 14.5 kg of narcotic drugs valued at over Rs 60 crore from them.

Special Commissioner of Police, HGS Dhaliwal said that there was information about Delhi-based persons of African origin being involved in drug trafficking in parts of the country. This information was developed and members of this drug cartel in Delhi/NCR were identified.

The DRI  too, had recently seized cocaine worth Rs 20 crore at the Mumbai airport from an Indian national who had arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. An African was also arrested later from the city after further investigations revealed his links to the drug smuggling racket.