Gold on calves

BENGALURU: Over Rs 5 crore worth of Ephedrine , packed inside cards for a fake wedding to be sent to Australia, was seized on Friday at the Kempegowda International Airport. On Tuesday, Rs 5 crore worth of the same drug was seized from garment spools at KIA . On Wednesday, two passengers flying in with gold strapped to their calf muscles were nabbed.Sources with the Central Intelligence Unit at the air cargo complex at KIA said they received a package for export to Australia containing garments and fat invitation cards for a wedding in Chennai on April 30, 2020. “There were 43 foldable cards foldable and made of cardboard with a bottom layer. When we cut open the bottom of each card, we found 80 polythene pouches containing a white crystalline substance hidden between the papers,” said an investigating officer in Bangalore Customs at KIA’s cargo section.On Friday, the customs sleuths sent the substance for testing and it was confirmed to be Ephedrine, a banned substance under the NDPS Act. The total quantity of the drug was 5kg which is estimated to be worth Rs 5 crore in the international market. The package was booked from Chennai and a probe revealed that the wedding was bogus and the cards were printed just to smuggle the drugs via air cargo, sources added.On Wednesday, sleuths of the Air Intelligence Unit intercepted three male passengers who landed at KIA on an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The men coudn’t give clear answers for the reason for travel. When they were frisked, gold in the form of paste was found strapped to their calves using transparent tape. A third passenger confessed that he was carrying gold paste inside capsules in his rectum. In all, 1.5kg of gold worth Rs 65.3 lakh was seized from the trio and they were booked for illegally bringing gold into India.On Tuesday, the customs department had busted 5.11kg of ephedrine worth Rs 5 crore rolled inside 45 spools covered with embroidery lace for garments inside a booked from Madurai to be sent to Australia through air cargo. The Friday seizure of ephedrine inside wedding cards and the same substance inside spools is suspected to be the handiwork of the same unidentified exporter from Chennai.