Cocaine worth about Rs 25 crore seized by customs from IGIA

Cocaine worth about Rs 25 crore has been seized from the cargo terminal of Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport here by custom officials.

About 5 kg of cocaine was concealed in packets of snacks to avoid detection and being sent via cargo to places in the US and the UK, customs officials said.

"Acting on intelligence, the officials found 5 kg cocaine and 12 kg Ketamine, a party drug, in a consignment which was to be shipped to the US and the UK. The drugs were hidden in snacks packets," Additional Commissioner of Customs at cargo terminal, IGI, K K Katheria said.

He said the consignment, detected on Monday, was booked via a courier company by a Ghaziabad-based firm.

The customs department was tracing the source of the consignment and trying to ascertain the credentials of the consignee, another customs official said.

The value of the seized drugs is about Rs 25 crore, he said.

A kilogram of cocaine is valued about Rs five crore in international market. A kilogram of Ketamine can fetch Rs one lakh in the international drug market.

Ketamine is a prescribed intravenous drug used as anesthesia in human and veterinary medicine. It is often abused in rave parties as a recreational drug.

Concerned officials of the courier company, who had booked the consignment, have also been put under the customs scanner, the official said.