KOCHI: The Customs Preventive Commissionerate Kochi and the state excise department in a joint operation traced a huge quantity of Methamphetamine (meth) at Car Nicobar Island. The drugs were traced in a follow-up probe into the seizure of 500 grams of meth from Manjeri last month.
Based on the probe, customs and excise officers found that a huge quantity of drugs was arriving in Kerala from the Nicobar Islands. Later, investigators could locate the place with the help of an informer who said that around 600 kg of drugs were abandoned by a foreign ship in 2019 which reached the hands of some native people from whom peddlers are procuring the drugs.
A customs team led by Superintendent Vivek V reached Car Nicobar Island with the help of the Coast Guard on August 21. Upon reaching the island, the investigators were led to an abandoned government guest house where a bunker was made by Japanese troops during the Second World War. The bunker and the guest house were damaged during the tsunami. As per the informer, there was around 50 kg of Meth kept in 25 packets in a secret chamber inside the bunker.
“However, when we reached the bunker, it was filled with water. Though we tried to pump out water from the bunker, the attempt turned futile. But we have information that several packets of Meth are in the possession of local residents. So with the support of local authorities, awareness programmes were conducted. Thus a local native surrendered 2.3 kg of Meth worth around Rs 2.5 crore,” an official said.
Customs officials said that several islanders have already become drug peddlers and many are abusing it regularly. “These drugs are also reaching the hands of school students on the island,” he said.