BENGALURU: In a covert operation by the Anti-Smuggling Unit of the Bengaluru Customs this weekend, nearly 2.6 kgs of popular recreational drug Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or Molly valued at Rs 1.89 crore arriving from Germany to the city was seized.
A drug peddler from Nigeria based here has been arrested and booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
According to the customs sources, the consignment with 7,000 tablets of MDMA had arrived at the Foreign Post Office on January 27 for an individual in Bagalur. “It was intercepted by anti-smuggling officials who found the tablets concealed inside the two-layered walls of corrugated carton boxes. The boxes had clothes and shoes,” a top source said.
"We decided to carry out a controlled delivery operation wherein we replace the parcel with a dummy one to the same destination. In order to avoid giving rise to any suspicion that it had been detected, the dummy parcel was sent to the local post office at Bagalur the next day (Friday).”
Customs staff in civilian clothes were present near the post office to get hold of the individual who came to collect it. “But no one turned up on Friday,” he explained. “The staff carried out the same drill the following day (Saturday) and waited patiently. By afternoon, the post office received a call from an individual in connection with the parcel. He also requested the delivery staff to hand it over to him at Country Club, located 400 metres from the Post Office,” he explained.
As soon as the parcel recipient reached Country Club to collect the parcel, he was arrested. “It has been learnt that he had been engaged in drug peddling in the City for some time but had never been caught for this activity. He was staying illegally in the City and did not have any valid passport with him. His passport had been as it was seized from him by a sessions court on grounds of forgery. He had three other fake passports on him,” the source said.
Further investigations are on, he added. MDMA is a psychoactive (mind-altering), a synthetic drug which creates distortion in time and perception and has enormous consequences on one's health including heart or kidney failure.