This story is from January 25, 2017

Cobra venom worth crores seized in Purnia

Cobra venom worth crores seized in Purnia
Representative image
PATNA: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths seized 1kg King Cobra’s venom, smuggled from France into India, and arrested two smugglers from Line Bazaar Chowk under the Khazanchi Haat police station area in Purnia district on Monday night.
This is the first such catch in Bihar. Cobra venom is used in manufacturing antivenom by pharmaceutical firms as well as hallucinating party drugs.
DRI sources said on Tuesday the consignment was worth Rs 3.75 crore in Indian market while its international price could range from Rs 15 crore to Rs 50 crore.
It was being carried by Virendra Mandal (45) of Alamnagar of Madhepura and Waqeel Das (40) of Belauri in Purnia, who were taken into custody.
The sources said the venom, in the form of crystal powder, was first smuggled into Bangladesh from where it was brought to Indian soil via Malda in West Bengal. It was stored inside a bullet-proof Belgium glass container to prevent spread of radioactivity.
Sample of the powder will be sent to a central government’s laboratory in Dehradun for testing. “A part of the consignment was to be sent to China via Nepal while the remainder was to be taken to Delhi,” a DRI official said, preferring anonymity, and added they have procured a Delhi cellphone number from the arrested smugglers and further investigations are on.
“The arrested smugglers told interrogators a Delhi-based doctor was earlier supplied the venom,” the official said, adding one Mohd Jabbar of Bangladesh, said to be the kingpin of the gang, had delivered the consignment to Virendra and Waqeel in Malda a few days back.
“The two Indian agents were promised Rs 4 lakh for delivering the consignment in Biratnagar in Nepal. A sum of Rs 50,000 was paid to them in advance,” the DRI source said and recalled a West Bengal forest department team had seized King Cobra venom worth Rs 300 crore from members of the same gang a few months back.
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