By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram
Police in Kerala are on the lookout for a man believed to the kingpin of a racket smuggling narcotics into the Gulf countries.
Police say Shafeeque of Kothamangalam was running a racket that sends drugs concealed in garments and other materials using unsuspecting carriers.
His brother Rasik was arrested on Sunday after the relatives and friends of one of such victim trapped him following the seizure of 951g of brown sugar worth Rs10mn concealed in jeans meant to be handed over to an agent in Kuwait.
A man gave the packet to the Kuwait-bound passenger identified as Jerish, who was returning after his annual vacation.
Jerish was told to hand the packet to a man in Kuwait. He, however, did not carry the bag as it was too heavy.
That’s when his troubles started.
He started receiving threatening calls in Kuwait from unidentified persons for not bringing the packet. He then alerted his relatives and friends back home who opened the packet to find small sachets of brown sugar kept in the pockets of the jeans.
When Rasik, a resident of Malappuram, phoned them demanding the packet back, the relatives informed the police.
The relatives asked Rasik to come to a designated spot from where he was arrested.
Officials who did not want to be identified said the racket should be investigated by the anti-terror National Investigation Agency (NIA) with the help of Interpol.
These rackets target unsuspecting job-seekers bound for the Gulf who are used as carriers. Some of them get caught at the destination airports and eventually end up in jails. Most of these victims belong to the northern districts of Kozhikode and Malappuram.
