South Africa airport seizes over 60 cocaine pellets from Namibian drug mule

• A 30-year-old Namibian woman was arrested at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport for drug trafficking.
• Police recovered more than 60 bullet-shaped pellets of suspected cocaine after a medical X-ray confirmed foreign objects in her stomach.
• More than 13 million rand ($1.2m) of drugs have been seized at the airport in two months.

A suspected drug mule was arrested on arrival at South Africa’s busiest airport after X-rays showed she had swallowed scores of packages suspected to be cocaine.

The unnamed Namibian woman, 30, is the 10th suspected drug mule to be seized at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg in the past two months.

Police said they had recovered more than 60 of the bullet-shaped pellets from her so far.

X-ray images showed dozens of packages inside the body of the 30-year-old woman. Photo / South African Police Services

Officers arrested the woman after being tipped off that a person with drugs was on the flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

National police spokesman Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said: “The team immediately intercepted the drug mule as she was making her way through immigration.

Officers said they had recovered more than 60 of the pellets ‘so far’ South African Police Services

“She was immediately arrested, taken to a local hospital where a medical X-ray confirmed and detected foreign objects in her stomach.

“She has already released more than 60 bullets of suspected cocaine thus far. She is currently under police guard and custody.”

Police said it was too early to speculate about the street value of the drugs haul.

More than $13 million rand ($1.2m) of drugs have been seized at the airport in the past two months.

Last week, police arrested a man with 450g of cocaine hidden inside headphones. The man had travelled from Sao Paulo and was due to catch a connecting flight to Nigeria.

A cleaner who allegedly handed him the headphones at the airport fled the scene and was on the run, police said at the time.