Two brothers held with Rs 3cr meth at Chennai Central

CHENNAI: Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday arrested two brothers at Chennai Central for smuggling a large quantity of the drug methamphetamine from Mumbai onward bound for sale in countries in Southeast Asia.
Investigators said the consignment was worth 3 crore in the international market.
Based on a tip, an NCB team maintained surveillance at the railway station early on Saturday and apprehended Javeed Basha, 28, and Sadiq Basha, 33, of Royapettah.
They frisked them and recovered three plastic boxes containing crystalline powder. The team members separated the suspects from other passengers, examined the material with a lab kit they had on the ready and confirmed it was crystalline methamphetamine. Methamphetamine, a potent stimulant, is a popular party drug in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
During interrogation, the brothers told investigators that they purchased the consignment from a dealer in Mumbai. Officers of the NCB believe the consignment was one shipment of several that an organized cartel of drug smugglers is dispatching abroad. Javeed and Sadiq Basha said their accomplices were to send the drug to Malaysia by air or sea.
The brothers, who live in Elephant Tank, Royapettah, paid frequent visits to Mumbai to meet suppliers of narcotics, an investigating officer said. “They successfully smuggled consignments of drugs to the city from Mumbai by train on several occasions in the past,” he said.
NCB sleuths surrounded the brothers and detained them as soon as they alighted from Mumbai Mail, which pulled into Chennai Central at 4.30am. Javeed and Sadiq were carrying two leather bags in which the NCB officers found the plastic boxes with the drug. A magistrate remanded the brothers in judicial custody.