At IGI airport, party-drug smuggling at a new high

Trafficking of party drugs through the Capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is on an all-time high.

Trafficking of party drugs through the Capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is on an all-time high.

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Last year alone, more than 500 kg party drugs such as pseudoephedrine, methaqualone and ketamine — worth Rs.120 crore — were recovered from the airport.

“In 2010 and 2011, no cases were detected but in 2012, we nabbed 18 passengers with 459 kg of drugs,” a CISF official said. Remaining 34 kg was recovered by customs officials.

Typically contrabands such as heroine and charas were recovered but the trend changed in 2012, when most of the arrests were for trafficking party drugs, a customs official said.

Manufactured locally, the drugs are smuggled in powdered form to the Northeast and Africa, the official said. Africa is the main market as the returns are high. Pseudoephedrine is a favourite of the traffickers — of the total haul, 394 kg was this drug usually prescribed for cough and runny nose.