Date:09/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/09/stories/2008070959240300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Ketamine seized, air passenger held

Special Correspondent

— Photo : A. Muralitharan

Parminder Singh, Commissioner of Customs, Chennai Airport, displaying the ketamine seized from a passenger in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Customs officials at the Chennai airport seized five kg of Ketamine Hydrochloride from a Kuala Lumpur-bound 55-year-old passenger. The passenger was arrested.

Parminder Singh, Commissioner of Custosm, (Airport), said the passenger, Thajudeen of Ramanathapuram district, was carrying a suitcase as a checked-in luggage, which raised doubts.

A check revealed that fibre glass sheets were found to have been fixed on both top and bottom inside the suitcase. When the fibre glass sheets were cut open, the authorities found four packets containing Ketamine, placed in the cavity formed between the original walls of the suitcase and the artificially affixed fibre glass sheets.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the passenger agreed to carry the drug to Kuala Lumpur for a monetary consideration. The drug was handed over to him by a stranger, he told the Customs authorities.

The seized contraband was valued at Rs 50 lakh in the international market.

So far this year the Customs authorities at the Airport have effected a dozen seizures of Ketamine, which weighed 85 kg.

Narcotics authorities said Ketamine was an essential drug and in India there was no ban on buying it.