In the largest haul of ephedrine in Bengaluru so far, a Namibian national carrying 20 kg of contraband was apprehended by sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at the Kempegowda International Airport early on Tuesday. Investigators suspect that the drug, worth over Rs. 60 lakh, was scheduled to be received by dealers here.
Ephedrine, a stimulant and banned substance — which is primarily used in rave parties — has been seized on earlier occasions by the city police in small quantities. With a thriving rave party scene in Bengaluru, the substance smuggling is suspected to have been to fuel the revelry here. This is the first haul of the substance by the NCB.
Sources in the NCB’s Zonal Unit in Bengaluru said, “Our team on standby intercepted a 50-year-old Namibian man, who disembarked from a flight that arrived in Bengaluru from New Delhi. His hand luggage had 20 kg of ephedrine concealed in packets layered with carbon papers, possibly to avoid detection on an X-ray machine,” said an officer. Investigations revealed that the accused had procured the contraband from an unknown source in New Delhi and was en route to Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Probe is under way on whether Bengaluru was only a transit point or a local dealer was awaiting the drugs,” the officer said. However, investigators suspect that the drugs were planned to be given to a dealer in Bengaluru and the accused, believed to be a carrier, would have flown to South Africa thereafter.
The suspect has been booked under The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and remanded in judicial custody.
The 50-year-old man was apprehended by
the NCB at Bengaluru airport
