Drug smugglers inside India are increasingly moving narcotics through the postal and courier network in tiny 5-to-20-gram lots — a method officials call micro-dosing — and hiding drugs inside everyday goods such as steam irons and religious offerings to beat screening, IANS reported on Saturday, November 7, citing officials and a module recently busted by the Tamil Nadu Police under its Operation Deep Source.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

According to the officials cited by IANS, peddlers send out at least 1,000 posts and couriers a day from various parts of the country, each carrying only a few grams, using fake identities and false sender addresses that make tracking extremely hard for law-enforcement agencies. Several operations by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the Indian Coast Guard and state police forces have busted multiple such modules.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

An Ambala coordinator, a network across 19 states

In the Operation Deep Source case, the Tamil Nadu Police found that parcels had been sent out from Ambala over the last year, with the drugs meant to reach 19 states and Union Territories. Mahender Singh Bisht was identified as the key coordinator operating from Ambala, while the supply to the various states was facilitated by Sunil Kumar, operating out of Jammu and Kashmir, the police learnt, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

Why the post, and how the handover works

An Intelligence Bureau official told IANS the networks prefer public postal systems because their Know Your Customer (KYC) norms are less stringent, and they deliberately route parcels to rural post offices that lack advanced screening facilities and digital infrastructure. Once a parcel reaches its destination, the peddlers instruct delivery personnel to call a burner number, and the consignment is picked up at a public space — eliminating any trail to a physical address.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

Instead of shipping raw bricks of narcotics, the networks use deep concealment: MDMA, hashish and opioids have been found hidden inside steam irons and even religious offerings in recent operations, IANS reported. Official records support the pattern — Chennai Air Customs releases issued through the Press Information Bureau document repeated seizures of MDMA and psychotropic tablets from postal parcels at the Foreign Post Office, including consignments booked under fake consignee names and parcels containing 4,180 psychotropic tablets.

Source: PIB Chennai Air Customs releases

The government has instructed private logistics companies to enforce stringent item scanning, mandatory KYC validation and parcel verification in response, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA