In a major operation, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested five persons and seized around 300 LSD stamps, which were allegedly smuggled in as a parcel from abroad through a post office in the city.
Among the arrested were those with criminal antecedents from Alappuzha and Kakkanad. The parcels, reportedly from Germany, initially led to the arrest of the three accused in whose names they were addressed. Subsequent action netted the rest, it is learnt.
As part of the operation, raids were reportedly conducted in Kochi, Kakkanad, Aluva, and Eroor.
Synthetic drugs, especially LSD, being smuggled in from abroad as parcels is nothing new to the city. In 2022 alone, the Excise unearthed five such cases hardly in as many months.
Except in one case involving a parcel of 200 LSD stamps, which were found to have been couriered in from Poland, received at the postal appraisal office of the Customs department, the rest were intercepted at the International Mail Centre (IMC) of the Postal department with the help of Customs officials.
Before that, 12 grams of MDMA couriered from the United States was seized. This was preceded by the seizure of 207 grams of MDMA and 60 LSD stamps packed into 15 different parcels from the Netherlands, 31 LSD stamps from two separate parcels from the Netherlands and Qatar, and 9881.9 milligrams of cocaine and 2896.8 milligrams of MDMA from parcels from the Netherlands.
