Luck runs out for drug carriers who eluded airport security several times

Taking 50 to and fro trips between Delhi and Manipur, two drug traffickers managed to take advantage of the lax security at the Delhi airport and smuggle copious amounts of heroin into the Capital for the past three years.

This time, however, they will not be able to board a return flight to Manipur, as the Special Cell team of Delhi Police arrested the duo with three kilograms of fine quality heroin amounting to Rs 12 crore in the international market from Daryaganj on Monday.

The two accused, identified as Mohammad Jafar and Parvej Saifi, used to procure the heroin from Manipur and would smuggle the drugs into Delhi by air.

They had so far taken 50 such trips and used to supply to heroin to African drug cartels based in Delhi.

The duo was arrested after the police received information about their movements.

"They were on their way to Daryaganj to deliver a consignment to a buyer of African origin," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.

After their arrest, the duo revealed that they had been working for a Manipur-based supplier Manjum for the past three years. It was found that Manjum would also procure heroin from Myanmar, due to its superior quality.

Taking advantage of the fact that the security scanners at both the domestic and international airports were not able to detect narcotic substances, the duo would travel by air.

"The accused travelled by air and used to have the drugs wrapped in carbon paper due to which the scanners at airport were unable to identify the drugs," Yadav said.

Sources in the airport security claimed that narcotic substances appear orange in colour when they pass through the scanner, the same colour that metals emit during the X-ray screening.

Further, the source claimed that sniffer dogs employed for security have the ability to sniff out narcotic substances for just about eight hours each day and more dog squad units are required to detect the drugs.