Chennai: A bid to smuggle Rs 30 lakh worth of a narcotic to Australia through courier was foiled by the Customs Department here Tuesday. Four people, including the mastermind of the plan were arrested in this connection, officials said. The narcotic was hidden as spices.
Three kilos of ‘Pseudoephedrine’ in powder form, packed in 37 plastic pouches marked as ‘spices’, was recovered recently from Chennai airport. The seizure was made by officials, who acted on specific inputs, a release said. The drug was concealed along with other spice powder packets.
Investigations revealed that the parcel was booked by an individual from Theni. It was destined to Auburn town in the state of New South Wales in Australia, the release said.
Sathik (37), the mastermind and three others involved in the smuggling were arrested. They have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 the statement said.
In a separate development in Delhi, heroin worth Rs 250 crore, seized in 2010, was destroyed by the customs preventive department Tuesday. The drug was seized from the possession of an Afghan resident, said a statement.
A high-level drug disposal committee of the customs preventive commissionerate (Delhi zone) carried out destruction of 51.865 kg of heroin October 13 by way of incineration at a centralised bio-medical waste disposal facility, the statement said. The current market value of the destroyed heroin in the international market is approximately Rs 250 crore, it added.
The huge quantity of heroin was seized November 16, 2010.