Customs officials at the Mumbai airport busted another drug racket and arrested two Indian passengers, who were on their way to Malaysia. The customs seized Methaqualone drug worth `2 crores in the international market.
A Malaysian Airlines flight was told to abort take off and return to the terminal to arrest one of the passengers who was on board.
The drama unfolded from 11 pm on Sunday to midnight and both passengers, Ahmed Pasha (38) and D. Gautamam (32), were found carrying 6 kg each of the drug in their hand baggage.
“Both the passengers were coming from Chennai and were on their way to Kuala Lumpur to sell the contraband. This is indicative of Mumbai becoming a major market for purchasing drugs, a departure from being only a transit point before,” said a customs official at the airport, requesting anonymity.
The Air Intelligence Unit of the customs had got a tip-off only about Pasha’s movements. A team led by assistant customs commissioner Sameer Wankhede apprehended Pasha during the routine customs check before boarding.
“Apart from the drugs that were hidden in carefully stitched cavities in his handbag, we also found a domestic boarding pass in the name of Gautamam, an accomplice travelling in the flight. We immediately sent a fax to the Air Traffic Control to ask the flight to abort take-off and the plane was called back to the terminal, where we arrested Gautamam,” said a senior customs official.
During interrogation it was revealed that while Pasha was a regular smuggler, Gautamam was an engineer with a reputed firm and was promised an amount of `30,000 by Pasha. Both were immediately arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.