Courier agencies told to install cameras to check drug trade

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has asked courier agency offices across the city to install CCTVS at the earliest, failing which they can face legal action.

The order has been issued in the wake of many interstate drug smugglers using courier services to transport their contrabands.

Police have asked the agency owners to install ‘sufficient’ number of cameras with ‘playback facility’ to cover every spot around the courier agency office. According to the order, the cameras should have a recording back-up of at least 30 days.

Police said that there have been many cases of drug smugglers using courier to peddle drugs. Courier services have in the past been used to transport bodies by killers, according to the order. In 2011, a young woman’s body was transported via courier from Old Delhi to Ajmer, Rajasthan.

The Narcotics Control Bureau also told police that in the last one year, the narcotics depart- ment in metros spotted a trend of drugs being smuggled to and from south American countries using courier services.

Last year, police have seized around four kilogram of Molly (used as a party drug) from outside a courier shop in Mahipalpur, south Delhi. The drug, worth at least ₹40 crore in the international market, was brought to Delhi by a courier company and was being transported to Punjab. Police had then intercepted a communication between the alleged drug smugglers and a courier agency executive, who detailed how he was helping in transport of the contraband.

Apart from CCTV cameras, police have asked all courier shop owners to maintain a register of every consignment along with a photo identity proof of each sender, who comes to send the courier.

According to the order, police have written to agencies that they should keep a photocopy of the identity and address proof of the sender so that it could be accessed by the police, if there is a formal investigation.

“Cross-check from the concerned company or office if its representative or employee approaches for getting the goods booked in case sender is acting on behalf of a company or office or organization(sic),” reads the order.

A senior police officer, who handles drug cases, said that over the last few years, most smugglers have changed their modus operandi of swallowing drug-filled capsules and have been instead using courier services.

The order has been issued under Section 144 of the criminal procedure code, which gives power to the police to issue orders in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger.

AS PER THE POLICE ORDER, COURIER FIRMS HAD BEEN USED BY NARCOTICS SMUGGLERS TO PEDDLE DRUGS AND BODIES BY KILLERS IN THE PAST APARAJITA SINGH, advocate, who is assisting the court, on diesel price