Excise yet to crack the Chennai link in drug smuggling case

Excise Crime Branch investigating the case has so far arrested 20 persons

Months after a major haul of a narcotic drug, which was initially mistaken as premium party drug MDMA, from an apartment in Thrikkakara, Excise could not yet make any breakthrough with regard to the Chennai link of the case from where the drug was smuggled in.

The drug had turned out to be Methamphetamine in chemical analysis. Though low in grade compared to MDMA, it is also a synthetic drug possessing which attracted near similar stringent punishment.

Though Excise Crime Branch (ECB) investigating the case has so far arrested 20 persons in the case, it did not include anyone from Chennai from where the drug was sourced. The drug was believed to have been sourced from Triplicane area in Chennai. But none involved in the deal there could yet be tracked down.

The original source of the drug also remains to be confirmed though it is suspected that it was smuggled in from Spain. “We also suspect that the smuggling was plotted in Sri Lanka,” said a senior official associated with the probe.

Among the 20 arrested, six were directly involved in the smuggling while the remaining 14 were accused of being facilitators either by way of funding or being part of the retail network of the racket.

It did not help that two of the accused managed to flee abroad. “They were initially in our list of suspects though we could not get their bank statements in time. By the time we got it, they had managed to escape to the Middle East. We are now about to issue lookout notices for them,” said the official.

Recently, the investigation team had arrested three persons–Vishnu aka Unnikuttan, Deekshith, and Shahid, all residents of Kozhikode. Shahid was arrested from Kozhikode following a tip-off about his return from his hideout in Bengaluru and his interrogation led to the arrest of the other two from Hosur in Tamil Nadu. Vishnu, the official, said was the right-hand man of the primary accused.

Meanwhile, investigators continue interrogation of suspects and remain confident of making more arrests.

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