Made in Kerala: Bootlegged venom — the new designer drug

Nedumbassery Airport, Kochi, Kerala.

Thursday, 26 January, 6.30 pm

Check-in gets underway for the Kochi-Chennai Jet Airways flight. Nothing unusual for most of the baggages till the x-ray screening machine displays some cavities in one. The airline staff handling the machine, rolls the bag back. “There are some liquid bottles,” he says while calling out for the passenger accompanying the bag.

A tall Ecuadorian national, an unusual visitor for a state like Kerala, steps forward. No apparent expressions. The security staff asks him about the suspicious contents. “Nothing, maybe my perfume bottles,” he says in a thickly accented smattering of English.

“So many bottles of perfume?” the staff ask. The passenger, Solano Rais Jimmi Vincent, a first time visitor to Kerala doesn’t contest him and looks cool.

The screening staff asks his bag-handler to pull the bag aside and ask the passenger to open it. Some fellow passengers gather around him, while some show restlessness at getting delayed. Solano opens the bag and the screening staff rummages through the contents; but they can’t find any liquid or bottles. He goes back to the screen, takes a look at the image again. “There is something else.”

A row of neatly arranged cavities. “There is nothing,” Solano keeps saying.

The security staff of the airline instantly knows it isn’t straightforward and there is something fishy. They call for the customs staff from the international airport next door.

The men in white uniform are smart. They take one look at the image and the contents of the bag, then order that Solano and the bag be taken to their inspection room. They ask Solano again if he has concealed anything in the bag. Still unruffled, he keeps denying. The customs officials are certain he has cleverly concealed some liquid drug, most probably hashish oil, in the bag and it is only a matter of minutes before they find it. They tear open the bag and are least surprised at finding the contraband — neatly arranged around the lining of the bag.

But, they are indeed surprised by the content. Fifteen condoms filled with  yellowish liquid. They instantly know it is not hashish oil that is usually smuggled as a liquid, but something else. Each pouch has three condoms, one over another.

“What is this?” asks one of the senior officers.

“I don’t know,” Solano says.

“Is this your bag?”

“Yes”

“And you don’t know what’s inside?” the official tries to look menacing.

“It’s not my bag. Ostin gave me.”

“Who is Ostin?”

“A Nigerian, I met him here.”

“Where is he?”

“Over there,” he says pointing towards the check-in area.

The officials immediately rush to the check-in area. There is nobody who looks African. They run to the CCTV system and run surveillance tapes. “There he is,” one officer shouts. In the tape, they find a hefty African guy, who was at the check-in counter, running out of the airport. It was almost at the same time when they were examining Solano’s bag.

Now the plot gets clear — two guys trying to smuggle out some drug. One guy gets caught and the other abandons the plan. It is more than half-an-hour since he ran out. He should be somewhere in the city.

With a photo captured from the surveillance footage, the customs officials immediately alert the local police. His photo is transmitted to all corners of the city and local police spread their net. In a couple of hours, they get a tip-off — a three-wheeler driver has identified him and he says he was dropped at the railway station in the nick of time for the Chennai mail and he could have probably got into the same train.

The customs officials immediately inform the Railway Protection Force (RPF), who look after the security of the railway stations and the trains in India, as well as the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Chennai. His photo is sent across to both RPF and NCB as well.

Interestingly, one of the NCB officials is on the train and has started combing the train, but the NCB or RPF don’t want to do anything in haste lest Ostin slips off. The train takes another12 hours to reach Chennai and there is enough time to plan and nab him.

At the Chennai central railway station next morning, the RPF, customs officials, local police and NCB are ready. They cordon off the platform prior to the train’s arrival and lay in wait with absolutely nobody else in the know.

As the Chennai mail screeches to a lazy halt, a six- foot-tall Nigerian walks out along with the restless passengers. He is nabbed without a flutter and is flown back to Kochi by an evening flight.

Meanwhile, the interrogation of Solano yields absolutely no clue, let alone leads. The customs officials are also puzzled by the contents. In the initial examination, they are certain it was no hashish oil or a narcotic drug that they were familiar with. This was something new, but Solano would not tell them what it is. As they wait for Ostin’s arrival, Solano goes to sleep in the same room, showing no signs of fear or anxiety.

Ostin is brought to the interrogation room and he repeats what Solano has been saying — that they met in Kochi and he doesn’t know anything about the contraband. Subsequently, both of them stop speaking altogether. They are indeed getting difficult and the officials are at their wit’s end.

This is no film, and is no third-degree involved.

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By then, they get the initial hint of the contraband and are surprised to hear what it is.

“Snake venom!”

State forest officials test the sample and give the initial confirmation. “Yes, snake venom and it can fetch a few crore of rupees in the international market,” they say. A sample is sent to the King Institute in Chennai for further analysis.

Solano and Ostin remain mum and play hard. The customs officials hand them over to the state forest officials, for the crime committed pertains to the Forest Act.

It turns out, this is the first recorded customs seizure of snake venom in India.

“Snake venom trafficked for what?”

Initial investigations reveal that snake venom, in highly diluted form, is emerging as a designer narcotic drug in many parts of the world. It is prohibitively expensive with one gram costing as high as Rs. 10,000 in the international retail market (USD 200). It gives a tremendous high and works well even for long-term heroin junkies.

Interestingly, the two scientifically documented cases of snake venom addiction have been reported from India. It is shocking and seemingly dangerous.

The cases have been reported in the Substance Abuse journal (32:43–46, 2011). The abusers, both long-term addicts of various hardcore drugs, received snake bites with the help of nomadic snake charmers. While one of them subjected himself twice to the snake bite over his left forearm over a period of 15 days, the other one got himself bitten in the foot. Both of them felt “dizziness and blurred vision followed by a heightened arousal and sense of well-being lasting a few hours.” They could also sleep for long hours and felt a more intense sense of arousal, such as happiness and grandiosity than given by regular narcotic drugs. One of the addicts didn’t know what the snake was while the other said it was a small cobra (naja naja).

Sources in the Customs and NCB say they suspected the venom was being trafficked for narcotic use because trading, including export, in snake venom is legal for medical purposes and there are many companies involved in it. If there is illegal trading, it should be for illegal purposes.

Although this is the first time that an attempt at international trafficking of snake venom got busted, the Kerala state forest officials have arrested at least two persons trying to trade in snake venom in the state last year.

In one of the cases, a man in Kochi was arrested with about 800 ml of venom trying to locate a buyer. Sources say that in many parts of Kerala, people extract venom from poisonous snakes such as cobra and viper. They usually cut the fangs of the snakes and continuously extract the venom. The bigger peddlers collect the venom from such small collectors before handing it over to national and international traffickers.

What was busted in Kochi was an international racket, which might have been going on for some time. The forest officials are now trying to identify the entire supply chain, working backward to the forest areas.

Sources say viper venom fetches a higher price.

Meanwhile, the interrogation of Solans and Ostin hasn’t yet yielded any useful lead. Ostin has been staying with his wife in Chennai for close to six months and has even rented an apartment, showing a deeper and stronger network in operation.