Two Held with Drugs in Bengaluru Shipped Through Amazon; Cops Figuring out Scale of Global Racket

Bengaluru: The city crime branch has arrested two youths with drugs that were apparently shipping through online retail sites like Amazon. Police said the racket has reached dangerous proportions and the banned drugs are likely to have been shipped from Canada through the online portal.

The contraband items came in the form of chocolates, cold drinks, strawberry-favoured candies, and even milk powder and could be legal for consumption in some countries. The labels on some of the chocolates, in fact, warned against their consumption by children and pets. It also warned users against driving after having such items.

“We launched a surveillance based on information provided by the parent of a drug addict. We then arrested Atif Salim (25) and Rohith Das (26) and recovered 2kg and 655g of drugs from them. Each gram of this drug costs about Rs 5,000,” Bengaluru Police Commisisoner Bhaskar Rao told reporters on Friday.

(The banned drugs)

Asked if Amazon was directly to be blamed for the availability of these banned items in India, Rao said they were clearly involved in the shipment to a large extent.

"The packaging makes it clear. Let them come and tell us that they have no role in this. Let them deny that these are not their packages,” he said, while adding that Amazon officials are yet to be summoned over the issue.

Police have formed a team to work on the case and have appealed to parents and school authorities to flag off unusual behaviour among children and keep a watch on suspicious conversations. Mostly children from well-to-do families get caught in these traps where payments are usually made through an app and cryptocurrencies.

Police said they would also work with airport officials, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), customs and other central agencies to find loopholes that allow such trans-national shipping activities.

"These are meth drugs (methamphetamine). They may be allowed in some of those countries, but they are not allowed here. We are examining the role of courier companies who are shipping them and how they are slipping through customs or other authorities at our ports. It must have come through passengers or cargo, through gates where it has gone unchecked. We need to look into it. We don't know at what a scale such prohibited materials are entering the country," Rao said.