Two Nigerian women have been arrested with over 37 kg of drugs valued at Rs 75 crore at the Bengaluru airport, the biggest-ever drug haul in Karnataka, the police said on Sunday.

The two women, identified as Bamba Fanta, 31, and Abigail Adonis, 30, were arrested when they landed at the airport from Delhi while carrying the MDMA in their trolley bags, Mangaluru Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal told reporters.

Four mobile phones, passports, and Rs 18,000 in cash were also recovered from them.

They resided in Delhi and were involved in smuggling MDMA across India. They used air routes to transport drugs and made about 37 trips to Mumbai and 22 to Bengaluru in the past year, the officer said.

While Fanta arrived in India in 2020 on a business visa, Adonis has been staying in the country since 2016. The two women were involved in the drug cartel for the past 1-2 years, Mr Agrawal said.

He said the operation stemmed from an earlier arrest six months ago, when the police caught a man, Haider Ali, in Mangaluru with 15 grams of MDMA.

Subsequent investigations then led authorities to a Nigerian national named Peter, who was arrested in Bengaluru with 6 kg of MDMA.