DELHI: Special teams from Additional Commissioner ate of Customs here have seized two kg of suspected ephedrine near a hotel on Devakottai– Karaikudi Road near Amaravathipudur in Sivaganga district. Two men who were in possession of the suspected narcotics however managed to escape from the sleuths.
Acting on the instruction of E. Clement Jeevananthan, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, three special teams, led by Superintendents S. Sivaprakasam, C. Senthilnathan and Sekar, launched surveillance near the hotel on Tuesday evening when they found two men, in their middle twenties, moving in a suspicious manner.
The sleuths, who were at three different spots in the vicinity, tried to get close, when the drug peddlers sensed trouble and ran away from the spot after dropping a bag, containing two packets of suspected ephedrine, Customs sources here said.
The duo escaped taking advantage of the bushy terrain, which had many small road intersections, the sources said.
Though preliminary tests revealed that the seized powder could be ephedrine or some kind of narcotics, samples would be sent to the Custom’s laboratory in Chennai to ascertain the veracity of the substance, the sources said. The seized substance would be first produced before a Judicial Magistrate Court in Pudukottai, they added.
“We will conduct further investigation only after ascertaining the veracity of the substance,” the sources added. Details of involvement of a gang in drug trafficking in the area and the role played by the duo would be investigated after obtaining the test results, the source said.
Meanwhile, reports suggested that one of the peddlers was in the custody of the Customs and being interrogated, but the officials denied the reports as incorrect.
