Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials have recovered methamphetamine worth ₹2.03 crore in an inter-State drug bust involving the smuggling of banned substances between Kerala and Karnataka.
NCB sleuths trailed the route of the drug transit and caught a 22-year-old fisherman while he was allegedly receiving the consignment in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
According to NCB Zonal Director Amith Ghawate, the team received credible information about a shipment of 40 grams of methamphetamine from Kattigenahalli in Yelahanka, which was on its way to Thiruvananthapuram. The gang had used the services of a private courier company.
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“The anti-narcotics team had information that drugs were being regularly smuggled to Kerala through couriers in Bengaluru. Following this, the NCB team raided the private courier firm in Yelahanka and found that someone had booked a cellphone box to be couriered to Thiruvananthapuram,” said Mr. Ghawate.
The NCB team opened the box to find a small packet filled with white-coloured powder which was later confirmed as meth, said a senior officer who was part of the operation.
They alerted their counterparts in Kerala who kept a watch on the package. A few days later, a 22-year-old fisherman, was nabbed in Thiruvananthapuram when he came to claim the box at the agency’s local branch.
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He was arrested under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. However, the NCB has withheld his identity as the investigation is ongoing and efforts are on to ascertain his contacts and extent of the network.