Kochi, The Excise Department has busted a major drug racket that allegedly smuggled MDMA from Delhi to Keralam using women as carriers and arrested four people, officials said on Sunday.
The two persons identified as Varun Dev and Vipin S Kumar , both from Pathanamthitta district, who were in the vehicle, were arrested by the Excise officials. “Thus, a total of four accused have been arrested by us now. Excise officials said around 279.3 grams of MDMA was recovered from the accused persons arrested in two separate operations involving members of the same racket. S Vinod Kumar, Joint Excise Commissioner, said the Excise Ernakulam Range, acting on a tip-off, arrested two persons, including an 18-year-old woman, with 49.3 grams of MDMA from a luxury hotel in Kaloor here a few days back. Six mobile phones and ₹ 69,500 in cash have also been recovered from their possession,” Kumar said.
He said one of the arrested persons had earlier been caught with drugs by the police.
“For these commercial quantity cases, the law provides for imprisonment up to 20 years, with the minimum sentence being 10 years. So if convicted in this case, they will definitely receive a minimum sentence of 10 years. That can go up to a maximum of 20 years,” he said.
