CHENNAI: In December 2021, officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized 1 kg of methamphetamine, which was packed in a lime-green bag marked as Chinese tea ‘Guanyinwang’, from a house in west Chennai. The drug was found packed in similar bags in multiple cases in 2019 and 2020 by the NCB in Chennai.
The identical packaging of the drug in multiple seizures is another direct indicator of how Tamil Nadu has emerged as a transit point for the global drug syndicates of the Golden Triangle — covering parts of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand — which traffic the contraband to Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Australia, officials said.
A 2024 United Nations study states that the ‘Guanyinwang’ packaging remains the predominant type of crystal meth packaging seized in countries like Malaysia and the Philippines. The lime-green packaging accounted for two-thirds of the meth seized in 2023 in Malaysia, the study notes.
The Australian Federal Police also identified this smuggling of the drug labelled as ‘tea packet’, detailing the increase in cases of the drug being trafficked from Malaysia through the sea route under this modus operandi.
Officials also point to another Tamil Nadu link to this illegal trade in Australia as well. A senior NCB officer said a native of Rameswaram is facing trial in a 125kg pseudoephedrine bust by the New South Wales police in 2021. Pseudoephedrine is a controlled substance which is used as a raw material to ‘cook’ meth in labs, a phenomenon common in Southeast Asia, the UN document notes.
The case of expelled DMK leader Jaffer Sadiq being investigated by the NCB is also about trafficking pseudoephedrine to Australia and New Zealand. In December 2020, DRI seized a cargo at the Chennai airport which had ephedrine concealed in a consignment declared as utensils bound for Australia.
Agencies have also busted attempts to traffic pseudoephedrine to Kuala Lumpur from the Chennai Air Cargo complex in a consignment declared as sarees in February 2020. In May 2019, NCB arrested a person from Mylapore, who was identified as an important cog of the syndicate smuggling 50 kg of pseudoephedrine from India to Malaysia.
An answer to the spike in seizure of meth in Tamil Nadu lies in the official statistics of Sri Lanka drug authority National Dangerous Drug Control Board, which indicates that methamphetamine has become the second most popular drug in the country after cannabis, upstaging heroin in 2024.
In January 2024, 195kg of meth was seized, which was more than twice the quantum seized in 2023, official data show. The number of persons arrested in meth cases has gone up from 2,073 in 2019 to 26,096 in 2023, an official publication of Lankan government said.
Political analyst N Sathiyamoorthy said the drug issue in Sri Lanka is a concerning trend and that it has increased due to socio-economic factors. “Given the proximity to Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu has become a transit point,” he said.
Important seizures showing TN-Malaysia, TN-Australia links
December 2020: Ephedrine concealed in stainless steel utensil to Australia at Chennai Air Cargo Complex
Feb 2020: 50 kg of pseudoephedrine from Chennai Air Cargo Complex destined for Malaysia in a consignment of sarees
