Drug pedlars in the country seem to be “diversifying” their trade by procuring and supplying alien narcotic substances to customers.
Officials of the Customs department here on Tuesday seized 180 kg of khat leaves, a banned narcotic substance, and detained a person in this connection. This is the first time that such a contraband was seized in Kerala.
Officials said the contraband, brought here as a postal parcel from Ethiopia, was seized on suspicion. The narcotic, kept in nine cartons, was meant to be transported to New Delhi.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the parcel was sent by an NRI, who is currently based in Kuwait. “During the interrogation, the local consignee who was arrested from Kollam said his role was limited to taking delivery of the parcel and rerouting it to some agents in New Delhi. We suspect the involvement of a bigger racket having international links in the entire operation’’, said a top Customs officer.
Grown in Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia, khat leaves contain psychoactive ingredients such as cathinone and cathine. Chewing khat leaves for a high is common in those countries but the World Health Organisation has categorised the plant leaves as a narcotic substance.
