In a joint operation held by the Excise Department and Customs in Kochi, four persons were arrested from a hotel in the city on Saturday night for possessing drugs MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-
By around 11.30 pm on Saturday night, officials of Excise and Customs, held raids in four luxury hotels in Kochi city including hotel Holiday Inn at Chakkaraparambu, from where the four were arrested in between the DJ party. According to Excise officials, 1.61 grams of MDMA, a synthetic drug, and 50 grams of ganja was seized from the persons. The arrested have been identified as Niswin Abdulla, Johnny, Denis Raphel and Ansar. While Ansar was the DJ of the party, the other three are the organisers of the party, the officials said.
As per Excise officials, the four persons have been booked under non-bailable charges. “Possession of over 0.5 gram MDMA is a non-bailable offence. They have been remanded after the arrest,” the official told TNM. The officer also added that seeing them, the accused persons tried to throw away the drugs, but it was confiscated. Meanwhile, no one else who attended the party was found with drugs or was found to have used them, officials said.
Incidentally, the raids were based on an alleged information received by the Excise Department that officers from a defence wing were attending the party. “That is why we held a joint operation with the Customs. But we did not find any such person, we are also not sure whether they left the party before the raid,” said the officer.
Further probe is underway to find more persons involved in the crime. “We are also inquiring whether the hotel officials knew about the drug usage. At present they haven’t been named accused,” the official added. The investigators also suspect that synthetic drug MDMA was sourced from Bengaluru.