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Chandigarh Police foil man’s bid to courier 10kg cocaine to Australia
36-year-old Chennai man tried to ship the package through an Industrial Area courier company that alerted the police
In their biggest narcotic seizure ever, the Chandigarh Police on Thursday recovered 10.24kg cocaine from a 36-year-old Chennai man, who was preparing to courier it to Australia.
The cocaine, packed in two cartons of crockery boxes, was discovered by the employees at Excel Worldwide Courier Agency in Industrial Area, Phase 2, who further alerted the police.
After the accused, Ashfaq Rahman, reached the courier company with the parcel request, the firm’s employees sought his identification card. But, he presented an ID bearing the name “Amanjeet”, which made them suspicious and they summoned the police.
As cops arrived at the scene and asked Rahman to open the sealed boxes, he panicked and fled, but was apprehended at the police beatbox near the courier company’s office.
“Inside each crockery box were seven wooden trays, which were sealed with plywood. The trays were making a hollow sound, so these were opened and cocaine wrapped in plastic packaging was found,” said UT senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal.
Investigators said Rahman had been staying at the Satsang Bhawan in Sector 26 for about a week. He had confessed to collecting the consignment from the Chandigarh Railway Station during this period.
He had also come to the city a month ago to conduct a recce to execute the plan.
However, police officials privy to the matter said, it was likely that Rahman was only a carrier. A Class 10 dropout, Rahman had claimed that he was paid ₹1 lakh to ship the contraband through crockery boxes.
Police have contacted their counterparts in Chennai to look into his criminal history.
The accused has been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act at the Sector 31 police station. He will be presented in court on Friday, when police will seek his remand to investigate the involvement of other people in what they suspect could be a drug racket.
