Doesn't Smell, Looks like Charcoal: What is Black Cocaine, the Rare Drug on NCB Radar?

Amid a CNN-News18 investigation into the menace of ‘black cocaine,’ a fresh nemesis of the Narcotics Control Bureau, let’s take a look into what the substance is and how it gets its name.

A Bolivian woman was stopped by the NCB in Mumbai in September last year with at least 3.2 kilogrammes of high-grade black cocaine worth Rs 13 crore. According to reports, her suitcase was thoroughly searched; they reportedly discovered phoney cavities and seized 12 items that were carefully wrapped and contained a black substance. The drug enforcement agency also stated that it is uncommon to find black cocaine.

So What is Black Cocaine?

The rare substance “black cocaine” is a combination of ordinary cocaine with additional administered amounts of chemicals. Drug traffickers travelling from South American nations to India use it to avoid having cocaine detected by sniffer dogs at airports. To make it easier to pass through checkpoints, it masks the scent of cocaine. Black cocaine is a mixture of regular cocaine base and various additives, such as charcoal, to disguise the typical appearance of the drug, thwart colour-based drug tests (cobalt salts form deep red complexes in solution), and prevent detection by canines trained to sniff out drugs, as per an Indian Express report.

The pure cocaine base is then extracted from the combination using regular organic solvents like acetone or methylene chloride. A second procedure is necessary to transform the cocaine base into powdered cocaine hydrochloride.

Since When Has it Been in Use?

While black cocaine is not new, it is fairly unusual at least in India. It is said to have been developed in the middle of the 1980s after the dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet, ordered his army to produce a covert cocaine that could be smuggled past law enforcement in the United States and Europe, as per a Wion report.

It was turned into rubber-like sheets and put into baggage when it was confiscated by Spanish police in 2008. In Spain in 2021, the police discovered a criminal group that was smuggling a shipment of nearly 860 kg of black cocaine that was allegedly disguised as charcoal.

Who Uses Black Cocaine in India?

The drug has been assumed to be used by the upper class and wealthy because it is so pricey.

According to reports, one of the entry places for narcotics into India from whence they are transported to other regions of the nation, including major cities and Goa, is Mumbai. In India, cocaine is used by at least 10.7 lakh persons, according to a September 2020 media report.

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