The NTR District Police arrested one Arunachalam, of Chennai, who allegedly booked the Ephedrine drug powder parcel through a private courier firm of Vijayawada.
Mr. Arunachalam was a smuggled goods transporter from Burma Bazar, Chennai. Police seized huge quantity of smuggled electronic equipment, worth about ₹30 lakh from him.
Disclosing the details in Vijayawada on May 11, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) D. Mary Prasanthi said the accused had booked the drug parcel in DST Courier on January 31, this year.
As the courier service staff had mentioned a wrong address on the parcel, it was sent to Canada and returned back to Bengaluru, where the Customs and Central Excise personnel seized the parcel and arrested the courier company’s employee, G. Teja, who had booked the consignment on his Aadhar card.
Police Commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata constituted special teams with law and order and the Task Force police, who swung into action and questioned K. Gopi Sai, an engineering student, on whose name the parcel was booked to Australia. Later, they traced the accused who had impersonated Mr. Gopi Sai and booked the consignment.
“Arunachalam, a tenth class dropout, is working with one Imran, who runs an electronic shop at Burma Bazar. The police team arrested Arunachalam at the airport while returning from Dubai and seized smuggled mobile phones, laptops, memory cards, DVD players, Dubai and Indian currency and other material from him,” said Additional DCP K. Srinivas.
During the questioning, Mr. Arunachalam said that two persons from Chennai had made a deal with him to sent the drug parcel to Australia. Police are trying to trace them, said Task Force ACP V.S.N. Varma.
“The accused had reportedly transported ‘garments’ in four parcels to abroad through DST Courier earlier. He managed to get Gopi Sai’s Aadhar card from Chennai, when the latter was studying engineering,” said Central Zone Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) S. Khadar Basha.
