KOCHI: The arrest of three persons at Aluva in connection with the seizure of what was believed to be heroine on Sunday has attained international dimensions with the excise sleuths finding links to Pakistan. The case had turned murky with the suicide of another involved in the case on Sunday night.
The Excise Enforcement and Anti-Narcotic Special Squad on Monday said that what was seized from Ebin Jose, one of the arrested, was brown sugar. There is a racket involved in smuggling drugs from Kerala to Kuwait as well.
Ebin who had surrendered before the excise officials on Sunday said he received the drug from Ibrahim, a native of Mariyappadi near Aluva.
Ebin was planning to sell the drug in the local market after changing his plans to go to Kuwait with it as part of the operations of a big racket.
He later surrendered after knowing that Mohammed Harish (not Arif as previously reported), who had introduced Ebin to the drug racket, committed suicide on realising that Ebin had cheated him. Ebin and other two arrested Shafi Noushad and Abi confessed to engaging in drug peddling.
In the fresh development on Monday, the sleuths took into custody Vishnuvardhan and Shyamjith in connection with the seizure. The duo are believed to have brought the brown sugar to Kerala from North India.
They are believed to have purchased 5 kg of brown sugar from a Pakistani national in Jammu and Kashmir and transported it to Kerala via road.
“It is believed to have been brought to J&K from Afghanistan. They reached New Delhi by flight last week and then proceeded to Srinagar and collected the drug,’’said an excise official.
Of the consignment, two kg of the material was sold to a gang in Palakkad while 1.5 kg was believed to have been smuggled to Kuwait.
From Aluva, 1.5 kg was seized. In the light of the suspected cross-border links of the incident, the excise is planning to handover the case to the Narcotic Crime Control Bureau.
