Three held for smuggling ketamine powder

Officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday arrested three people, including two officials from a Kalamboli-based company, for allegedly smuggling ketamine powder along with a salt consignment to a Malaysia-based private company.

The agency has seized a huge consignment of ketamine weighing 65kg valued at Rs6.5 crore on the international market.

The arrested have been identified as Arvind Tripathi, Ram Krishna Pandey and Mohammad Aziz. While Tripathi and Aziz work in at Central Warehouse Corporation in Kalamboli, Pandey is a custom agent.

According to the DRI officials, Central Warehouse Corporation supplies salt to a Malaysian company. The agency had received specific information that the said company supplies ketamine powder along with salt to the Malaysian firm.

Acting on the tip-off, DRI officials recently raided the company office in Kalamboli. During the searches they recovered more than 450 pouches, of which 348 contained salt, while 95 contained ketamine powder. The trio was arrested on Thursday and produced before a local court, which remanded them in judicial custody.