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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Petlee Peter | TNN

Bengaluru: Meth capsules, heroin seized in week of mega haul at Kempegowda International Airport

BENGALURU: It was a week of big drug hauls at Kempegowda International Airport, with narcotics worth around Rs 35 crore seized during different smuggling attempts.

While a Zambian woman landed with heroin worth Rs 30 crore in her luggage with a false bottom, a Ugandan man touched down after swallowing 80 capsules filled with methamphetamine worth Rs 4 crore. Pseudoephedrine worth Rs 1 crore was hidden inside kids’ toys and meant to be shipped to New Zealand. The consignment was unearthed at the airport cargo.

Sleuths in the Bengaluru unit of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence were kept on their toes as KIA witnessed drug-smuggling attempts in quick succession like never before in the recent past.

Meth capsules in stomach

On July 18, the DRI team intercepted a passenger following a tip-off that large quantities of contraband were being smuggled into Bengaluru from Africa.

Sources said the Ugandan national, who had touched down from Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight, was intercepted following immigration formalities at KIA.

After questioning him and checking his baggage, investigators still suspected something amiss and subjected him to a body scan. It was then they realised he was carrying 80 capsules in his stomach. He had swallowed them before boarding, sleuths said.

The man was taken into custody and escorted to a hospital, where the capsules were carefully removed. A lab test ascertained the contents to be methamphetamine.

According to sources, he was carrying nearly 1kg of the drug, estimated to be worth Rs 4 crore in the international market.

DRI arrested him under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. It is the first case of smuggling of methamphetamine using the notorious ‘swallowing’ modus operandi reported in Bengaluru airport; conventionally, cocaine is the contraband illegally brought like this, sleuths said.

Pseudoephedrine in toys

The cargo wing of KIA, after a brief hiatus, saw yet another drug-smuggling attempt, this time inside musical toys for children being exported to Auckland, New Zealand.

According to airport sources, the cargo containing toys was booked for air cargo shipment by an unidentified person from Chennai and was sent to KIA cargo section to be shipped to Auckland, after being declared as recreational items for toddlers.

Following specific intelligence on drugs being sent to New Zealand, a DRI team reached the KIA cargo bay on Thursday evening and inspected all the consignments meant for shipping. The sleuths unearthed 4.3kg of pseudoephedrine concealed inside numerous toys. The sympathomimetic drug, worth Rs 1 crore, was seized and probe is under way about the exporter from Chennai.

Heroin in false bottom

On Monday, investigators intercepted a passenger, a 37-year-old Zambian woman, who landed in KIA on a business visa. Following information, a DRI team rounded her up soon after she disembarked an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa.

During questioning, it was revealed that she was carrying 4.5kg of heroin inside her trolley bag, under a false bottom crafted to facilitate substance smuggling. The heroin,worth over Rs 30 crore, was seized and the passenger booked. She is being grilled about her Bengaluru links in the drug trade, sources said.

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