Smuggling of MDMA in cargo lorry leaves enforcement officials worried

The seizure of nearly 300 grams of MDMA smuggled in from Bengaluru on a cargo lorry at Kalamassery has left the enforcement authorities worried.

The detection and seizure of synthetic drugs such as MDMA remain tough considering its very nature making it easy to hide unlike ganja. But smuggling it in the guise of cargo transportation makes life even more tough, say enforcement officials who are ill-equipped and do not even have basic gadgets such as scanners during vehicle checking.

The Kalamassery police had seized the contraband from a lorry engaged in transporting granite from Bengaluru through Tamil Nadu and arrested two persons. They had hidden the drug in their bags. “The seizure was made possible thanks to specific information about the movement of the drug. Rarely have we seized synthetic drugs from cargo lorries. We suspect the accused had smuggled in drugs in a similar manner several times before,” said Kalamassery police sources.

The enforcement authorities admit that only a fraction of MDMA being smuggled into the State is being seized, and they predominantly attribute it to the difficulty in detecting it.

“Around 50% of MDMA is smuggled in by individuals in inter-State sleeper buses, another 10% in trains, and the rest in cars. The seizure of MDMA from cargo lorries has been very rare,” said an Excise official.

Detection of synthetic drugs, whether being smuggled in through public transport, cargo vehicles or private cars, is near impossible without specific and accurate tip-off.

“Random checking of inter-State buses infuriates passengers as they complain of being held up disrupting their schedule. Synthetic drugs can also be hidden in specially designed chambers in cars or even screwed inside car parts. This can be tricky as well since stopping cars and pulling it apart could boomerang on enforcement officials, if the information proves wrong. In such cases, officials could be accused of high-handedness and would be even asked to bear the cost of restoring the vehicle to its original condition,” said the official.

When it comes to LSD stamps, it is even easier to smuggle it in undetected. It can be delivered as a normal post or courier. Seizure is possible only when couriered from abroad since it may be detected during scanning by the Customs.