For Customs, new frontier in war on drugs is the humble post office

A few days ago, the Foreign Post Office (FPO) at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai received two parcels from the US containing a pillow and a speaker.

- Vijay V Singh

It had nearly cleared Customs before someone raised a red flag: "Who would order a pillow or a speaker of a low quality from the US spending a few hundred rupees on postal charges?" They cut open the pillow and dismantled the speaker and found hydroponics weed concealed inside both packages.

Welcome to the new frontier in the drug war: trafficking homegrown weed through the neighbourhood post office. This November, by the 14th, 15 drug consignments arriving by international post were detected in the city. In all, 200 cases are pending where narcotics coming via postal services have been seized at FPO. They come concealed in all manner of objects from books and chocolate wrappers to gloves and stuffed toys. With New Year approaching, the smuggling is expected to intensify. Customs officials say they are already nabbing almost one consignment of hydroponics weed every day.