The Special Postal Intelligence Branch (SPIB) of the Mumbai Customs have arrested a man for allegedly being part of a syndicate involved in smuggling of MDMA drugs. The arrested person has been identified as AA Chaturvedi (36), a resident of Ahmedabad.
Details of case
According to the Customs, on January 23, an import parcel being imported through Foreign Post Office, Mumbai, in the name of Atish Pawar was examined. This resulted in recovery and seizure of 3996 MDMA tablets having net weight 1636 grams. MDMA is a psychotropic substance covered under NDPS Act.
A dummy parcel was formed and controlled delivery of the dummy parcel was attempted on January 27, at Ulwe. During the controlled delivery of the dummy parcel, RS Sharma received the parcel and his statement was recorded wherein he admitted that he was asked by one person named Vincent, a Nigerian national, to collect the parcel.
Accordingly, Sharma was placed under arrest on January 29, in connection with seizure of 3996 tablets purported to be MDMA. One FE Khan who had assisted Sharma in collection of the parcel was also arrested.
Sharma told the investigators that Vincent had promised him to pay Rs 20,000 to collect the import parcel and Rs 10,000 were paid in advance to him from the bank account of Chaturvedi. Therefore, Chaturvedi was summoned on March 4 to appear before SPIB, Mumbai office on March 15, and his statements were recorded.
Based on his statements, it was evident that Chaturvedi is involved in financing, purchase, consumption, selling and transport of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Accordingly he was placed under arrest on Saturday in the said case.
