DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities said on Friday they were awaiting official communication from Indian authorities on the reported arrest of a Tanzanian woman with a huge stash of cocaine worth about 6 million U.S. dollars.
Peter Mfisi, the Drugs Control and Enforcement Authority (DCEA) Commissioner for Prevention and Treatment, said: "Investigations into the arrest of the woman and the source of the cocaine will begin as soon as we get formal communication from the Indian authorities."
On Thursday, Indian media reported the arrest of the Tanzanian woman as among two suspects arrested in the Indian capital New Delhi with the stash of cocaine in one of the biggest anti-narcotics busts in the Asian country in recent months.
Mfisi said the DCEA contacted Tanzania's embassy in India which said that it was yet to get official communication from the Indian government on the arrest of the woman.
"When our embassy receives the official communication it will submit it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tanzania," Mfisi told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
He added that the DCEA will from there start investigating the arrest of the woman and seizure of the drugs based on official information from Indian authorities.
"Our investigations will focus on establishing the source of the cocaine and other relevant information," he said.
According to media reports from New Delhi, the Tanzania woman and a Nigerian man were apprehended by India's Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) with the illicit drugs allegedly found in their possession.
The Delhi zonal unit of the NCB first nabbed the woman, a 40-year old Tanzanian national identified as Beatrice K. Ndyetabula, in the vicinity of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), the Times of India reported.
The other suspect arrested in the bust was identified only as Augustin (33), a Nigerian male.
Indian anti-narcotics officials said Ndyetabula landed in Delhi from Mumbai and, when intercepted and frisked in the terminal area, 27 ribbon rolls concealing four kilograms of cocaine powder were recovered from her hand baggage.
She had arrived in Mumbai earlier on Thursday from Kenya and the alleged drugs consignment was to be handed over to the Nigerian man in the Indian capital, the officials said.
In February, President John Magufuli personally ordered local security forces to launch a comprehensive crackdown on illegal drugs trafficking in the country, sparing no one including top politicians and their relatives.
Magufuli's drive against illegal drugs reflects growing international concerns that East Africa is being used by traffickers.
In 2010, a surge in large maritime heroin seizures in East Africa first highlighted Africa's role in the southern route, especially the use of Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar as transit zones.
