Drug precursor seized from AI plane

New Delhi: In what could be a major embarrassment for the government here, Afghanistan has seized 210 litres of acetic anhydride, used for processing heroin, from an Air India flight that took off from New Delhi.
The quantum of the seized chemical is enough to produce more than 200 kg of heroin. Acetic anhydride is used to refine opium into high-grade heroin, which is pushed into international market and the proceeds used for funding Al Qaida and Taliban.
The seizure from India's official carrier, which was made on March 22, led the Hamid Karzai government to lodge a strong protest with India, sources said. For the contraband to reach Kabul on board India's official carrier is puzzling because the narco smugglers behind the operation managed to get past surveillance agencies, which had been alerted against the strong possibility of such an operation taking place.
Afghanistan had, just a month ago, alerted New Delhi to take preventive steps to ban export of the chemical as there was no legitimate use of the chemical in the war-ravaged nation.
Based on Kabul's request and an advisory from the UN's International Narcotics Control Bureau, the government had issued an alert on March 6 to all its intelligence and anti-narcotics agencies to check any diversion of the chemical to Afghanistan.
The seizure has also raised questions about the security apparatus as a whole, with authorities grappling with the fear of collaboration of government functionaries.
18/04/09 Pradeep Thakur/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Apr 2009, Foreign Apr 2009, nacil apr