Despite the back-to-back seizures by enforcement agencies, Kochi is increasingly becoming a favourite transit point for international drug cartels.
Narcotics Control Bureau sleuths on Tuesday foiled an attempt to smuggle cocaine through the international airport here and arrested an El Salvador national in this connection. Officials recovered 2 kg of the contraband from his check-in baggage.
The trafficker, identified as Doran Sula Johny Alexander, landed here from Rio de Janeiro via Dubai in the morning.
The cocaine was found concealed inside the packets of toilet soap. “Out of 13 soap covers, 12 of them had been filled with the narcotic stuff,” officials said.
According to officials, the cocaine is of pure form and is believed to have been sourced from the cocaine production belt in South America. The accused was reportedly working for a South American drug cartel.
He has been booked under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. A probe is on to find the exact location to where the nose candy was smuggled to.
Brazilian connection
There has been a perceptible rise in the frequency of drug seizures being reported from the airport here from the second half of 2017. Interestingly, in all the three cases the contraband originated from Brazil.
In November last year, the Narcotics Control Bureau had arrested a Paraguayan national with 3.6 kg of cocaine and in December, they arrested a Venezuelan national with over a kg of the contraband in his tummy.
The last among the seizures was reported in January this year when the agency arrested Jonna De Torres, a Philippino woman, for smuggling 4.5 kg of cocaine.
Anti-narcotic officials attribute the rise in number of cases to cocaine cartels turning to tier-two destinations in view of the strengthened monitoring at metro airports. In most cases, consignments are smuggled to hubs like Goa or New Delhi because Kochi could never handle such a huge volume single handedly,” said a top anti-narcotic official.
