KOCHI: Two major synthetic drug (MDMA) hauls in the state over the past few months, both reported in Ernakulam, have one thing in common— the drugs were sourced from Chennai. That has left enforcement agencies wondering whether Chennai has emerged as a major source of synthetic drugs supplied to Kerala. In June, the police reported the state’s biggest MDMA seizure — 2kg — at Angamaly. The consignment was seized from a pick-up van that arrived from Chennai. Last week, the excise busted a gang from an apartment in Kakkanad and recovered around 1.2kg of MDMA.The gang too had sourced MDMA from Chennai while travelling with women and dogs to evade checking by the police and the excise, said a police officer.
“There are several common aspects in this case. In the police case reported in June, the main accused belonging to Kannur had taken an apartment in Kakkanad and ran the supply network after sourcing drugs in bulk from Chennai. The gang busted last week also had members from north Kerala and lived in Kochi after renting an apartment to run their network. Demand for synthetic drugs like MDMA is high in Kochi. To procure one kg of MDMA, at least `10 crore is required. How these gangs manage to find such huge funds is another mystery,” the officer said.
Excise officials had received information that the gang busted from the Kakkanad flat smuggled around four kg of MDMA, more than half of which was sold loose within a day. “Other than these two cases, the Chennai links could be established in more cases reported in various parts of Kerala. From our investigation, we have come to know that Chennai is one of the major landing places of synthetic drugs like MDMA and LSD. The seizures of drugs at the Chennai airport is regular. In such cases, the network maintains multiple links and investigations often don’t reach the main man. With confidential social media platforms, the dark web and bitcoin-based money transfers, these gangs have become more active,” an excise official said.
Excise Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar said the investigation team has sought a seven-day custody of five arrested persons from whom around 1.2kg of MDMA was recovered last week.“We have to interrogate them to find the persons in Chennai who supplied MDMA. We will expand our probe to trace them. As the courts were closed from Thursday, we expect to get the accused persons in custody on Tuesday,” he said.