Indian couple nabbed at BIA smuggling Rs.20Mn worth chocolate-coated ‘Kush’

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana  

A young Indian couple with their seven-year-old child trying to smuggle the Cannabis variety ‘Kush’ worth over Rs.20 million that has been coated in chocolate was arrested by Sri Lanka Customs at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) yesterday.  

The couple and the child were returning from Thailand and had arrived in Sri Lanka en route to India when they were stopped on suspicion by the Customs Narcotic Control Unit officials stationed at the BIA Arrival Terminal.  
Customs Spokesman Additional Director General Seevali Arukgoda said the officials found one kilo and 984 grams (1,984g) of Kush from the check-in baggage of the couple, which had been valued at Rs.20 million.  
The family had arrived in the country on SriLankan Airlines flight UL 403 from Bangkok and had planned to return to India after spending a couple of days in Colombo.  
The drugs rolled into the size of small balls were wrapped in polythene before they were chocolate coated and again wrapped with gold and silver foil to look like chocolates.  
An official from the Narcotic Control Unit told the Daily Mirror this was a very sophisticated foolproof method even the sniffer dogs at the airport couldn’t pick up the scent of the narcotics. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the 30-year-old man of the couple had agreed to transport the drugs from Bangkok to a Sri Lankan contact for 50,000 Indian rupees. They were then supposed to return to their home town in Chennai, the sources said.  
The suspects along with the drugs had been handed over to the Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB) officials last evening for further investigations.