KOCHI: In a major haul, Excise on Friday arrested an Assam native with 563 small containers of brown sugar at Kothamangalam. The arrested person was identified as Shakoor Ali, 32, who is involved in multiple narcotic cases. According to Excise officials, a tip-off was received that drug trade and abuse are taking place near Kothamangalam Revenue tower at night.
Based on the information, the Excise shadow unit was deployed to trace the persons who were involved in drug peddling activities in the area. The special unit found that Ali was involved in the sale of drugs to migrant workers as well as youngsters in the area. “Ali was under surveillance for the past few days. On Friday we conducted a raid at the place where he stayed and recovered a large quantity of brown sugar. The seized brown sugar was worth Rs 17 lakh. This is one of the major seizures of brown sugar reported in the district in recent times,” an Excise official said.
In the interrogation, Ali confessed that he procured brown sugar from Assam and brought it via trains regularly. “He sells the contraband almost at double the amount here. He came to Kerala only for drug peddling and did not have any other jobs. We are also checking whether he was assisted by any other for illegal activities here. The probe will be extended to Assam to identify people supplying drugs to Ali there,” an Excise official said.Ali was produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.