Most of the 60 parcels seized from the Mumbai post office contained packets of powdered Ketamine ranging in weight from 250 gms to 1kg. The rest had “charas” and “hashish.” The parcels were being despatched to receivers in the UK, Spain and Italy, customs sources told this newspaper.
“The largest number was headed for Britain,” the official said. Azavedo had been running a drug business worth crores of rupees for the past four years. Narco officials are on the hunt for a Goa-based Punjabi dealer suspected to be Azavedo’s supplier of raw Ketamine.
A kilo of powdered Ketamine which costs Rs 30,000 in India fetches Rs 10 lakh in Europe, officers said. A dissociative anaesthetic, Ketamine which goes by the street name Special K, Kat and Raver’s Smack, has emerged among the top ten recreational drugs in Europe.
Acting on DRI inputs, the Customs traced 12 of the Ketamine packages to Azavedo, though all the parcels carried fictitious senders’ names. The packages had been despatched through the post office at Mapusa, North Goa, and were lying at the foreign post clearing section in Mumbai before someone got suspicious. A whole lot of parcels containing Diazepam or Valium and Viagra—all manufactured at Azavedo Pharma, the unit the drug smuggler set up at the Hubli Industrial Estate—slipped through without being noticed.
Hoodwinking his way
Only parcels that weigh 2 kg or more require a valid ID proof from the sender. Azavedo was able to hoodwink post office employees for years sending parcels that weighed a kilo or less.
At the Hubli end, enforcement officers discovered that Azavedo Pharma which manufactured “Goaiagra” and “Val10” had temporarily shut down on December 9, but workers were still around. “We were told he was short of orders at the moment,” the officer said.
Some narcotics officials had been on Azavedo’s trail for years, but the “businessman” managed to stay steps ahead with apparent help from the inside.
Azavedo runs three pharmacies on the Calangute coast that have been raided in the recent past and shut down by the Food and Drugs Administration on suspicion of under-the-counter sale of prescription drugs. His business has grown and he also runs a restaurant, super market and night-club in Baga.
