Army jawan, three others arrested with drugs at IGIA

The four people were arrested in the wee hours after a CISF check squad detected suspicious activity in terminal-1D of the airport when they arrived to board a Go Air flight to Kolkata.

The security personnel identified the four as Naik Lalparmawia (30) of the 3rd battalion of Assam Regiment from Shillong, David Lalnuntluanga (23), Vin Ramdingngheta (27) and Ramdim (22) from Mizoram.

CISF sleuths in plainclothes tailed the four people for sometime and upon suspicion asked them to undergo detailed frisking which led to the recovery of 85 kg of pseudoephedrine tablets, a popular narcotic stimulant and party drug, from their bags. The estimated value of the recovered drugs is said to be Rs 68 lakh.

The airport security later called up anti-narcotics sleuths who arrested the four.

This is the fifth incident in the last two months when the CISF surveillance personnel have detected drugs just before it was being secretly sent into civilian aircraft as cargo.

"We have deployed special surveillance and profiling squads on the airport which are now yielding results. Personnel are trained to detect any suspicious gait or movement of a passenger in the shortest possible time," CISF Deputy Inspector General (IGIA) K N Tripathi told PTI.

The three arrested today, except the army man, were found to be residents of Janakpuri in the national capital and were working in call centres.

They informed a joint interrogation staff of CISF and Narcotics Control Bureau that they had to hand over this consignment to someone in Aizwal via Kolkata.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is the designated force to guard civilian airports in the country.