KIA: sweet boxes stashed with ketamine seized

Team Udayavani, Jan 6, 2018, 4:14 PM IST

Bengaluru: 17 sweet boxes with the name ‘Shree Mithai’ printed on it, that were stashed with 11 kgs of ketamine worth 1 crore was seized by the officials of the Airport Courier and Customs Intelligence Unit at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Friday. It was ready to be shipped to Malaysia by an exporter.

When the consignment was under scan at the airport, the custom officials found some suspicious object that did not look like sweets in some of the sweet boxes. When the boxes were thoroughly examined, silver coloured packets were found in 11 of the 17 sweet boxes.

When the packets were opened, the officers found brownish-red coloured powder that looked like chilli powder smeared between a sachet. And inside the sachet was a white crystalline powder. A chemical examination revealed that the white powder was ketamine and the chilli powder was smeared on the outside packet in order to prevent drug detection. Only 6 out of 17 boxes contained sweets.

The shipment belonged to an exporter who booked the cargo through couriers from Chennai to Bengaluru. Shipment was towards Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The identity of the exporter is yet to be revealed.