India police charge Amazon executives in alleged marijuana smuggling case
- Police in the central Madhya Pradesh state arrested two men with 20kg of marijuana on November 14
- Police found the men were using the Amazon India website to order and further smuggle the substance in the guise of stevia leaves to other Indian states
Indian police said on Saturday they had charged senior executives of Amazon.com’s local unit under narcotics laws in a case of alleged marijuana smuggling via the online retailer.
Police in the central Madhya Pradesh state arrested two men with 20kg of marijuana on November 14 and found they were using the Amazon India website to order and further smuggle the substance in the guise of stevia leaves, a natural sweetener, to other Indian states.
State police said in a statement that executive directors of Amazon India were being named as accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act due to differences in answers in documents provided by the company in response to police questions and facts unearthed by discussion.
Police did not disclose how many executives were charged.
The police, who had previously summoned and spoken to Amazon executives in the case, estimate that about 1,000kg of marijuana, worth roughly US$148,000, was sold via Amazon.