102kg heroin concealed in ‘mulethi’ consignment recovered at Attari ICP

The contraband was detected a day after licorice root stock was unloaded by a truck from Afghanistan in a godown at the check post

AMRITSAR: Custom officials have recovered 102kg of heroin that was concealed in a stock of mulethi (licorice root) imported from Afghanistan at the Attari integrated check post (ICP), which facilitates India’s trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Custom officials have recovered 102kg of heroin that was concealed in a stock of mulethi (licorice root) imported from Afghanistan at the Attari integrated check post (ICP), which facilitates India’s trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Amritsar customs commissioner (preventive) Rahul Nangare said the contraband was detected after goods were scanned in the X-ray machine as per the prescribed examination procedure. “Some irregular spots were seen in the X-ray images in some of the wooden logs. After opening the bags, small cylindrical wooden logs (not mulethi), which appeared to be sealed on both ends by sawdust mixed in adhesive material were seen. The wooden logs were segregated and packed in separate bags,” he said.

“A cavity was spotted in each wooden log, which was filled with powdery material suspected to be a narcotics substance. The substance was tested both by the customs and BSF officials separately and they showed positive results for narcotics material. The weight of wooden logs was 475 kilograms, of which 102kg of suspected heroin was extracted. Further investigation in the case going on,” the commissioner said, adding that the liquorice consignment was imported from Afghanistan by a Delhi-based importer.

A senior official posted at the ICP, who didn’t wish to be named, said: “The truck from Afghanistan returned after unloading the mulethi consignment of 340 sacks at the ICP’s godown number 2 on Friday. When the customs officials started clearing the stock on Saturday, the suspected contraband was detected in the X-ray machines installed in the godown. Following this, all the sacks were checked. Two to three wooden logs concealing heroin were recovered from almost each sack.” The consignment of mulethi had come in the name of Delhi-based Balaji Trading Company, and was sent by Alem Nazir Ansari Ltd, a firm based at Mazar-E-Sharif in Afghanistan, said the official.

The customs, however, refrained from disclosing the name of the importer saying the investigation was still on. “The process to register a case regarding the seizure is still on and we can’t comment about the importer or the importing firm till our investigation concludes,” said assistant commissioner Balbir Singh Mangat.

Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) had installed X-ray machines in all three godowns of the ICP around a year ago.

In June 2019, the customs had seized 530.6kg of heroin at the ICP. The drugs were concealed in a consignment of Pakistani salt. Though several persons were arrested in the case, the probe was later handed over to the NIA after a request from the Punjab government to Union home minister Amit Shah.

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Truck scanner at

ICP non-functional

The truck from Afghanistan that had brought the consignment of licorice root managed to return without checking due to non-functional full body truck scanner at the ICP. “The truck was not checked when it entered India on Friday as the full body truck scanner was not functional,” said a senior customs official who didn’t wish to be named.

The truck driver would have been apprehended immediately after his entry to the ICP had the truck scanner been operational, he said.

The ₹23-crore truck scanner project was announced in March 2017. Of the five truck scanners imported from the US, the first one was installed at the Attari ICP. The customs department, which is responsible for the checking of trucks importing goods at the ICP, had conducted the scanner’s first trial after its infrastructure development was completed in November 2019, but it did not give results.

The Land Ports Authority of India, which installed the scanner, has got the scanner repaired several times, but to no avail. Since the foundation stone of the ICP was laid in 2010, there has been a demand for a scanner as manual checking of vehicles by customs officials, with sniffer dogs, is not 100% error-free, and has sometimes led to clearing of the contraband.