By IANS,
Chennai : A Filipina and an Indian were remanded to judicial custody Tuesday after being found with illegal drugs worth Rs.50 million at the Chennai aiport where they were about to board flights to Malaysia, customs officials said.
This is the second major drug haul at Chennai airport in two months.
In all, 10 kg of Ketamine tablets and 2 kg of heroin were seized from from Rachael Dageagwiong, 39, of the Philippines and Azhagu Raja, 40, of Mannargudi in Tamil Nadu a little before midnight Monday during a joint operation by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and customs officials at the Anna International airport.
The suspects were about to board different flights bound for Kuala Lumpur when they were apprehended. The drugs found on them have an international open market price of Rs.50 million, customs officials said.
The Filipino is said to have claimed she was returning home after working in the Middle East for two years, police sources said.
DRI sources said they were acting on specific information. Both the passengers had concealed the contraband in small food containers.
“If the duo had been allowed to travel and had the DRI tipped off the authorities in Malaysia, the accused would have been in greater trouble since drug smugglers are awarded the death penalty in that country,” a police source at the airport told IANS.
A 22-year-old Taiwanese national, M.M. Nasser, bound for Taipei via Bangkok, was arrested in Chennai Feb 26 with 20 kg of Ketamine concealed in his luggage.
Developed by multinational pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis in 1962 as a veterinary drug, Ketamine is known to induce hallucinations when consumed by humans sans medical supervision. The drug has been banned worldwide since 2003.