11 kg ketamine stashed in sweet boxes seized at KIA

Bengaluru: Eleven kgs of ketamine, worth Rs 1 crore, was seized by officials of the Airport Courier and Customs Intelligence Unit at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). It was concealed in 17 sweet boxes and ready to be shipped to Malaysia.

According to customs officials, each box had one kg of sweets with the name ‘Shree Mithai’ printed on it.While scanning the consignment, customs officers found suspicious images that did not look like sweets in some of the boxes. When they examined the shipment, they found silver-grey coloured packets in 11 of the 17 boxes.

Each had a smaller packet inside it, and between the two was a brownish-red coloured powder. According to the officers, it looked like chilli powder had been smeared between the two sachets. The inner packet contained a white crystalline powder. A chemical examination revealed that it was ketamine, a senior officer said.

In order to prevent detection of the drugs, the exporter had sprinkled red chilli powder on the outside packet, the officer added.The export cargo was booked by the exporter through couriers from Chennai to Benglauru, which is the hub for shipment to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Only six of the 17 boxes contained sweets.