Cocaine worth Rs 35 cr seized at Chennai airport; meant for Delhi, Mumbai: DRI
The arrested suspect is believed to be a part of an international narcotics ring and was bringing the drug as instructed by traffickers in Delhi and Mumbai, said sources
CHENNAI: In the third major drug bust at Chennai airport in September itself, officers from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) nabbed a man who landed here from Cambodia with 3.5 kg cocaine, worth a whopping Rs 35 crore.
The arrested suspect is believed to be a part of an international narcotics ring and was bringing the drug as instructed by traffickers in Delhi and Mumbai, said sources.
The DRI sleuths received a tip-off that a passenger arriving from Singapore on an Air India flight on Sunday night was a narcotics mule ferrying drugs into India. Following this, officers in plainclothes kept watch at the arrival terminal. They spotted a 35-year-old man, who had travelled to Cambodia on a tourist visa and returned to Chennai via Singapore, and found him suspicious.
When the officers intercepted and questioned him, the passenger gave contradictory statements, which heightened their suspicions. He was then taken to the Customs office at the airport, where his belongings were examined. That is when the officers found cocaine weighing 3.5 kg concealed in his baggage. The contraband was valued at Rs 35 crore in the international market, said sources.
The passenger was arrested and taken to the DRI office in T Nagar for further questioning. Officials said he was part of an international drug trafficking network and had brought the consignment for contacts in Delhi and Mumbai.
Based on his statement, the DRI officers here informed their counterparts in Delhi and Mumbai. Efforts are under way to trace and arrest two persons linked to the syndicate who are suspected to be hiding in those cities.
In the earlier case that was reported on September 16, DRI officers caught a man who was smuggling cocaine worth Rs 20 crore from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Before that, a joint team of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) officials of Customs and Narcotics Control Bureau had seized 5.61 kg of high-purity cocaine, valued at approximately Rs 60 crore, and arrested four people on September 1.
