KOCHI: In one of the largest drug hauls in the city, the Narcotic Cell of Kochi City police conducted simultaneous raids in various parts of the city and seized 721 LSD stamps and arrested four drug peddlers.
Apart from LSD stamps, the police recovered 1.08 grams of hashish, 20 grams of ganja and Rs 8.04 lakh from the accused.The major operation was held in the wee hours on Thursday under the guidance of City Police Commissioner C H Nagaraju.
The raid was conducted by a team led by Narcotic Cell Assistant Commissioner Thomas K A. The arrested include one of the major suppliers of psychotropic drugs in Kochi identified as Nevin Augustine, 28, a native of Pachalam. He is currently residing at a rented house in Chilavannur. The others arrested, include Levin Lawrence, 28, of Ayyappankavu, Amal K J, 22, of Pachalam and Akshaya Varghese, 22, of Ayyappankavu.
Police seized 97 LSD stamps, 1.08 grams of hashish, 20 grams of ganja, Rs 7.86 lakh in cash, a laptop, mobile phones and a digital weighing machine which can for objects weighing even less than 20 grams from Nevin’s residence. Also, 618 LSD stamps and Rs 18,500 were seized from there.
From Amal and Akshaya, six LSD stamps were recovered.“We first arrested Amal and Akshaya with LSD stamps. Based on the disclosures made, a joint operation was planned by the city police commissioner. This is the first time that such a huge quantity of LSD stamps were seized in Kochi,” said Assistant Commissioner Thomas K A. Police said Nevin used to procure psychotropic drugs from European countries via the darknet.
Levin was his close aide who took care of the supply chain. “Nevin used to run a homestay in Kodaikanal. He returned to Kerala after marrying a German citizen this year. He trawled the dark web to order all kinds of psychotropic drugs from European countries using bitcoin. He has already procured drugs worth several lakh. LSD was bought for $2-3 per stamp. The drugs were ferried via international courier service firms,” Thomas said.