KOCHI: Though cocaine worth more than Rs 60 crore was seized from Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) in five cases since November, in none of the case the persons other than carriers could be traced and arrested by the agencies. The major limitation is about extending the probe abroad for tracing the kingpins, resulting in the investigation reaching a dead end.
More than 12 kg of cocaine was seized by NCB from foreign nationals who landed at CIAL in the past 10 months. “The cartels maintain a clever modus operandi as they keep carriers blind about the identity of the persons who are part of the gang. Even the person who hands over the cocaine to the carrier remains unidentified. They will not reveal the identity of the person to whom the cocaine has to be handed over in India,” an officer said.
Even the cartels make calls from fake SIM cards for providing direction to the cartel. “In all cocaine case, we have found calls are coming from different countries. All these numbers are fake ones. So, tracing down the handlers is also a difficult task,” he said.There are also limitations regarding receiving assistance from agencies abroad to carry out an investigation in Brazil. “We have to provide the exact information about the persons to receive any assistance in the investigation abroad. This makes investigation difficult,” he said.
NCB looks to track down person who contacted Venezuelan
Kochi: A Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) officer said, “We’ve recovered the arrested person’s mobile phone. We’re looking to track down the person who contacted the Venezuelan. Investigation is on.” Infante was shifted to the NCB office in Kakkanad where his arrest was recorded.
He will be produced before the magistrate later.
It is the fifth cocaine seizure involving foreigners reported in CIAL since November 2017. In the three prior cases too, South Americans -including another Venezuelan, Paraguayan and El Salvadoran --- were arrested while a Filipina was arrested. In all the cases, the cocaine consignment arrived from cartel based in Sao Paulo. NCB suspect that Kochi was used as a transit point by the drug cartel as
they feared intense checking at New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai airports.