Another 1.085kg MDMA seized from Kochi flat of drug gang

KOCHI: The excise enforcement squad recovered 1.085kg of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, in further search in an apartment rented by a gang that travelled along with dogs to smuggle drugs from Chennai and Puducherry. Excise officials suspect that the gang had smuggled around 4kg of MDMA from Chennai. 

In the operations carried out jointly by excise and customs on Wednesday late night, five persons including two women were arrested from an apartment. The officials recovered 90 grams of MDMA, impound a car and took into custody three dogs of Rottweiler and Doberman breeds, which are famous for their aggressive nature. 

“We carried out a thorough search again at the apartment in Kakkanad from where the accused persons were arrested. Around 1.085kg of MDMA was found in the dustbin in a corner of a room, where they had tied the dogs. Now, we have seized 1.175kg of MDMA in total in the two searches and the value of the seized drugs is around Rs 13 crore,” Excise Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar said. 

N Sankaran, Excise Circle Inspector and investigation officer in the case, said they suspect that the gang had sold some quantity of MDMA while returning from Chennai after procuring the same recently. “There were several packets of 50gm to 100gm of MDMA.

These were left in the waste bin in an abandoned manner. As they had tied dogs in the room, we suspected that there would be more quantity of drugs there and decided to search the place again. We also suspect that the gang had already sold packets of MDMA to some persons in Kochi while returning from Chennai after their recent trip,” he said.The customs will approach the court seeking the custody of the accused persons next week. 

Meanwhile, excise officials have also received information that the gang procured around 4kg of MDMA from Chennai recently. “This input we received has to be confirmed. We have handed over the seized mobile phones for forensic examination. From the interrogation of accused and digital evidence collected during the preliminary forensic examination of their phones, we expect to identify more leads to the nexus,” an excise officer said.