Agency starts sharing dos and don’ts with courier companies to check the menace after sharp rise in cases in 2020-2021
Drugs seized by DRI at Mumbai airport on Tuesday
Increased movement of drugs through courier services has emerged as a new challenge for the Narcotics Control Bureau. Taking advantage of poor diligence by many courier firms, smugglers are using them as a conduit for their illegal business, said NCB officers. The agency has started meetings with leading courier companies and is guiding them in preventing the menace, apart from warning of strict action for lapses.
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NCB officers said the smuggling of drugs through couriers gained momentum during the lockdown, with the smugglers communicating via the darknet. The agency came across 306 such cases in 2020 and 2021, up from 134 between 2017 and 2019.
NCB’s Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh during his recent visit to Mumbai said that they had been interacting with courier companies to check their mechanism to detect drugs in courier parcels. “We have found that mainly top courier companies have such a mechanism for a proper KYC, but small companies don’t verify the product and don’t even take the KYC. In many cases, we have seen that courier employees themselves provide their IDs for the booking of the parcel,” Singh said.
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“We have given dos and don’ts to these courier parcel companies and they have been asked to strictly adhere to these directions. If any violations are found in future, we will take strict action as per the mandate in law,” said Singh.
NCB officers said cannabis, also known as marijuana or bhang, is one of the widely supplied drugs through courier services in India. Even the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has said that it is the most supplied drug in the world.
About the international smuggling of drugs, Singh said, criminals use airport cargo services. NCB is keeping a close tab on Mumbai and Delhi airports.
On Tuesday, the Directorate Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized a consignment of 86.5 kg hydroponic weed worth Rs 40 crore at the Courier Terminal in Air Cargo Complex, Mumbai. The packet originated from the US and was marked as ‘Outdoor Concrete Firepit’. It was destined for Bhiwandi. DRI later raided a godown at Bhiwandi and arrested two people.
On Wednesday, the NCB seized 7,500 nitrazepam tablets in Borivli that had been couriered from Ahmedabad and arrested two people. It found that the syndicate behind it interacted via social media and trafficked drugs across Delhi, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Maharashtra through courier service.
In July, NCB seized 4.8 kg of charas, destined for Australia, at Mumbai airport, and arrested two people. In June, it arrested a businessman and the owner of the courier firm for allegedly importing 5 kg of hashish from the US. He used to send parcels without verifying the identity of the consignor and receive money through hawala.
134
Cases involving couriers in 2017-2019
306
Cases involving couriers in 2020 and 2021
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