Former air hostess, assistant arrested for trying to smuggle drugs worth Rs 30 lakh

NEW DELHI: A former air hostess and her aide have been arrested for trying to smuggle drugs worth Rs 30 lakh from Vadodara in Gujarat to Mumbai. The accused have been identified as Mansi Syed (41), a former air hostess with Malaysia Airlines, and her assistant, Sohail Sulaiman Sheikh (20). The Surat Crime Branch busted an interstate drug trafficking network based on confidential information that a large quantity of mephedrone was being transported in a car.

Police seized 977 grams of drugs, a mobile phone, plastic covers and containers used for packing the drugs, among other items, from the car. The two accused, who are residents of Santacruz in Mumbai, have known each other for several years. They had travelled to Vadodara in a rented car from Mumbai. During interrogation, the accused reportedly admitted that they had purchased the drugs from an unidentified woman at the railway station in Vadodara and planned to take them to Mumbai, divide them into packets of five to 10 grams, and sell them to customers.

Mansi has allegedly been involved with a drug trafficking network since 2015, after quitting her job as an air hostess. In 2021, she was arrested in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, with 100 grams of drugs and spent nearly four years in prison. She is also reportedly linked to drug trafficking groups in Madhya Pradesh.
The investigation is also focusing on the unidentified woman who allegedly supplied the drugs to the accused in Vadodara.