A rare clandestine way of concealing narcotics in brooms for smuggling from Pakistan into India was unearthed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), with the seizure of 5.480 kgs of heroin having an international market value of ₹38.36 crores.

Based on specific intelligence, the DRI intercepted a consignment of brooms at the Integrated Check Post, Attari, Amritsar. On opening 40 bags, the sleuths came across 4,000 pieces of brooms.

“The heroin was stealthily filled in 442 hollow short pieces of sticks of bamboo which were kept in three bags. Ends of such sticks were artificially sealed and further camouflaged by packaging them inside “Afghan Brooms” which from outside was tied with iron wire,” DRI officials stated.

DRI sources stated that suspicion arose over why would brooms come to India where there is no dearth here. The kind of effort that has gone into packaging heroin discreetly inside the broomsticks gives a suspicion that it may be the handiwork of organised people, DRI sources said, commenting on the innovative modus operandi.

The consignment of brooms which originated from Afghanistan was imported by Abdul Salam, an Afghan national, who was travelling using fake Indian IDs in connivance with his Indian wife, said the DRI. Salam is an old hand in drug running and was out on bail in an NDPS case Delhi Police had registered against him way back in 2018. His wife too was arrested in the Delhi police case.

The DRI stated probe is on to unearth the entire conspiracy and smuggling module and to gather more evidence in the case. There have been other seizures of drugs coming from Afghanistan in the past as well, said the DRI sources.

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