Hyderabad, Aug 31 (IANS): Doctors have recovered 40 small pouches of narcotic drugs from the body of a South African woman who was posing as being pregnant when caught at Hyderabad airport.

Mosiea Moosa, 32, was arrested by the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) officials on Sunday when she landed at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport from Dubai on an Emirates flight.

The doctors at the government-run Osmania General Hospital, who had recovered 16 packets till late Sunday night, extracted 24 more packets on Monday.

Moosa, who had concealed the narcotic substance in her belly and urogenital tract, was given laxatives to naturally extract the pouches.

The hospital authorities clarified that no surgery was conducted.

A hospital official said more tests were being conducted to know if there are more sachets of drugs in her body.

The pouches recovered so far are estimated to contain 450 grams of narcotic substance, suspected to be cocaine. This is estimated to be valued at Rs.1 crore in the international market.

The woman had difficulty in walking and when questioned by NCB sleuths, she claimed to be seven months pregnant. However, the officials grew suspicious by her travel pattern over the last few days.

The South African national was first taken to a corporate hospital near the airport, where she admitted that packets of narcotics were concealed in her body.

She was later shifted to Osmania Hospital and kept under medical supervision. A series of tests were conducted by doctors, who then gave her laxatives to extract the pouches.

Investigations by the NCB revealed that Mosiea flew to Dubai from Johannesburg on August 23. The next day, she landed in Sao Paulo City, Brazil. She returned to Dubai on August 28 and from there took a flight to Hyderabad.

The officials suspect that the woman procured the contraband from Brazil and managed to smuggle it into Dubai.

The NCB sleuths were questioning the woman to identify the person or people to whom she was to deliver the drugs.