BENGALURU: Six kilograms of pseudoephedrine worth Rs 1 crore, which was on its way to the Bengaluru airport cargo complex to be smuggled to Australia after being declared as garment boxes, has been seized by the sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in Trichy, Tamil Nadu.
One person from the gang smuggling the key chemical ingredient used for making the banned substance methamphetamine has been arrested.
The DRI team, acting on a tip-off that large quantities of pseudoephedrine was being smuggled through Bengaluru, tailed the smuggling line and reached Trichy on Wednesday.
“The Bengaluru to Australia air cargo route to smuggle out drugs has become notorious in recent years and investigating agencies have stepped up vigil. Based on credible information, our team landed at a private courier agency in Trichy,” said an officer.
The team nabbed a gang member who attempted to book two cardboard boxes containing clothes to be sent via air cargo from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) to New South Wales in Australia.
“The boxes with clothes had hidden inner layers containing plastic packets filled with a white-coloured substance which a lab test ascertained as pseudoephedrine,” the officer added.
Smuggling gangs operating in Tamil Nadu have been using the Bengaluru air cargo route to smuggle pseudoephedrine and other banned substances to Australia.
Earlier, DRI team had thwarted attempts by a gang to hide drugs inside a photo album of a child’s birthday ceremony and another time, bogus wedding cards.
