Airport agencies failed to detect 4.3kg cocaine coming to Goa from Thailand: SP

Panaji: An investigation into one of the biggest-ever single-day cocaine seizures, weighing 4.3kg and worth Rs 43 crore by Goa police, has revealed that the accused evaded central govt authorities at Delhi and Goa airports to bring drugs into the state from Thailand.
Customs and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), among other agencies, are active at airports across the country to act against the narcotic trade.
SP (crime branch) Rahul Gupta told TOI, “The investigation shows that the drugs were smuggled from Thailand to Goa via two airports, and law enforcement agencies at two airports were not able to detect the smuggled drugs.”
He said that the price of drugs is calculated as per the DRI-specified international rate, but the actual price in the local market could be different. Gupta said that the accused are not cooperating with the investigation.
Goa police received information that a group of people, including a woman, was likely to deliver a narcotic substance to prospective customers. Based on the input, the crime branch conducted a search in Chicolna, in Mormugao taluka, and arrested three persons.
Goa police arrested a 45-year-old native of West Bengal, Nibu Vincent, and a couple, Reshma Wadekar and Manguesh Wadekar, both residents of Sada in Mormugao.
Crime branch personnel caught Vincent red-handed and subsequently arrested the couple. Goa police said that the way it was packed and supposed to be delivered, it appeared to them that they procured the substance from a “sophisticated drug dealer”.
The woman procured the drugs, and both males were involved in the delivery of drugs to customers. Mangesh works at a crematorium in Vasco, and his wife was arrested in connection with alleged human trafficking. Gupta said that Mangesh was arrested in an alleged rape case.
Vincent does not have a criminal record, but the couple used him as a delivery boy, the SP said.
In March, Goa police seized drugs worth Rs 11.6 crore and arrested a 23-year-old Bengaluru resident for allegedly illegally possessing over 11kg of hydroponic weed (ganja). Police said the youth brought drugs from Nepal to India and that the crime branch had busted an international drug racket.