CHENNAI: Drug dealers are now using foreign postal parcels to smuggle marijuana and other drugs into India. In the last three months, the postal intelligence wing of Customs has seized a whopping 31 such consignments, all containing cannabis, from Canada, the UK, and US.
A statement from the department said: “Based on intelligence inputs, officers intercepted some parcels arriving from these countries. It was found to contain dried green leaves of marijuana, packed in multiple layers of vacuum compressed sealed plastic bags.”
The substance was packed along with coffee powder, to conceal the fragrance. Samples were sent to the Narcotics Lab, which confirmed the substance as Cannabis. Officials believe legalisation of marijuana in certain Western nations has triggered this new trend of imports, though it’s still a prohibited substance in India.
The total weight of seized substance is around 4kg. “In most cases, the consignee names provided to book the parcels were fake. In some others, the consignees said their names were misused to book parcels,” said sleuths.