KARACHI, March 29: The customs drug enforcement cell (Karachi airport unit) seized four kilograms of synthetic psychotropic drug said to be worth millions of rupees from a Malaysian passenger, according to a handout issued by the customs on Tuesday.

It stated that a Malaysian passenger, Mohammad Ridzwan, was intercepted at the airport’s international departure hall when he came to board a Malaysian Airlines flight for Penang via Kuala Lumpur.

As the passenger could not give satisfactory replies to the queries of customs staff, his baggage was thoroughly examined, which led to the discovery of a white crystalline substance. Packed in two polythene bags, the substance was concealed in his specially-built suitcase with a double frame base, the handout said.

The substance weighing four kilograms has initially been identified as ‘amphetamine’, a synthetic substance widely used as psychotropic narcotic in Europe, America, the Far East and parts of Australia with different names like ‘speed’, ‘ice’, ‘meth’ and ‘crack’, etc, according to a spokesman for the customs.

“It’s the first time in Pakistan that amphetamine — costlier than heroin and other drugs on the international market — has been found and seized,” he claimed, adding that the drug was mostly used by young addicts from the affluent class.

The handout said that the young passenger had been arrested and a case under the Control of Narcotics Substances Act, 1997 registered against him.