10 kg narcotic drug haul at Bengaluru airport, one held

Bengaluru: A man was arrested after about 10 kg of narcotic drug valued at Rs 2 crore in the international market was seized from him at the city airport, an official said on Thursday.

“The contraband was found in 35 schoolbags of Mujibur Rahman, who tried to smuggle it to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia onboard a Malaysian Airlines aircraft,” Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal Director Sunil Kumar Sinha said in a statement here.

The airport police arrested Rahman, who flew into Bengaluru from Chennai on Wednesday night. He was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

“We intercepted the bags after Rahman checked them in with the airline,” Sinha said.

He said the accused confessed during preliminary questioning that he had been smuggling such narcotics to other countries, including Malaysia and Sri Lanka, for a hefty commission.

Ephedrine is a precursor chemical used to make lethal psychotropic substances such as methamphetamine, which are banned under the NDPS Act.

Ephedrine, due to therapeutic uses in pharmaceutical industry, has been declared as a controlled substance under the NDPS Act.

Illicit trafficking/smuggling of ephedrine attracts up to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine.