KATHMANDU: A 21-year-old Brazilian woman has been arrested at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) for attempting to smuggle cocaine while transiting through Nepal.

According to the Narcotics Control Bureau’s TIA branch, the suspect, identified as Emily Mikaele Santos Ferreira, was en route to Bhutan via Doha, Qatar, when she was detained.

Police said Ferreira was caught in the airport’s departure lounge with 1.95 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside black bras. The drugs were wrapped in condoms and concealed in plastic.

Authorities said Ferreira had arrived in Nepal from Brazil via Qatar. Investigators suspect her involvement in an international drug trafficking network.

She is being held under Nepal’s Narcotics Control Act, 1976, after the Kathmandu District Court approved an extension of her detention.

Further investigation is ongoing.