Over a Rs 5 cr of Ephedrine, packed inside 43 fake wedding cards was seized at Bengluru airport. On Tuesday, the same was seized from garment spools from Kempegowda International Airport.
The courier terminal had reportedly received an unusually heavy packet of 43 wedding cards which were being sent to Australia. As the package, booked by a Madurai-based exporter, seemed suspicious, the officials decided to cut it open. The wedding invites were so heavy that officials had to use scissors to open them.
“There were 43 foldable cards foldable and made of cardboard with a bottom layer. When we cut open the bottom of each card, we found 80 polythene pouches containing a white crystalline substance hidden between the papers,” an investigating officer in Bangalore Customs at KIA’s cargo section was quoted saying by the Times of India. Later, when the substance was sent for testing, it was found to be Ephedrine, a banned substance under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. The total quantity of the drug concealed in the cards was 5kg which is estimated to fetch Rs. 5 crores in the international market.
Further probe revealed that the wedding was bogus. In fact, the cards were just printed to smuggle drugs through air cargo. As per reports, this is the second seizure of Ephedrine from Bengaluru’s air cargo complex in the last six days.
Investigators believe all this is part of an international drug racket. The case is now under investigation.
