NEW DELHI: Indian Customs seized a man consignment at Sahar airport’s cargo section about 140 kg of what looked like flowers and leaves.
“Don’t go by the look, it can kill you,” said a Customs officer. Turns out, the flowers were khat, a narcotic plant that is popular among the rich and delinquent from Arab and African countries.
The leaves have 70 to 80 per cent of cathinone and cathin, substances covered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act. The active ingredients in khat are the same as in mephedrone of meow meow, the newest drug that is becoming a menace in Mumbai.
According to a senior Customs officer, it is the first time that any enforcement agency in Mumbai or India’s western region has seized khat.
“Acting on specific information, our team stopped two people who were trying to take away a consignment from Sahar’s cargo section,” said an M&PW investigating officer. The 15 boxes with the drug, the officer added, had come from Ethiopia.
During preliminary questioning, the duo told the Customs team that the seized material belongs to M/s Simnam Export, and that the consignment is of aperishable vegetable that has to be refrigerated. The duo refused to provide further details.
Customs team arrested Intikhab Alam, owner of Simnam Export, and raided his Masjid Bunder office. There, they recovered 11.5 kg more of dried khat.
Alam allegedly confessed to supplying khat to several foreign national clients across Goa, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai.
An investigating officer of the customs team said, “After Alam’s statement, the team was clueless since no one had an idea how to proceed with the case. However, we came to know about a similar kind of case detected by the Hyderabad special task force, where a Yemeni national was arrested for selling khat.
Customs sent the material for testing in January. A week ago, the report confirmed it was khat.
“Alam’s case is just the tip of an iceberg, since he is into this import business for the past 15 years,” said a senior Customs officer.
Khat is smuggled in as a vegetable or exotic fruit – which are normally never checked. A 50 gm bundle sells for anywhere between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000.
