Raman Sharma, a 29-year-old Adelaide man, has pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply and appealed in the Adelaide Magistrates Court to spare him from jail.
In 2021, Mr Sharma posed as an Uber Eats food delivery driver and tried to smuggle illegal opioids wrapped inside a burrito into Adelaide’s Tom’s Court Hotel at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These drugs included heroin and Kamini, popularly known as “Indian Viagra”, banned for sale by the the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
“Kamini”, a herbal drug which contains highly addictive opioids, Papaver somniferum, is again in news. These bottles are produced in India and sold as “Indian viagra” to improve mens’ virility in India.
A bottle of Kamini contains 40 balls, each tablet varies in size and weight: between 0.2 and 0.4 containing up to five per cent opium. These bottles are covertly shipped across Australia’s borders to be distributed via Indian grocery stores.
People, mostly South Asian-origin taxi and truck drivers, are known to be using 30 each day which was the equivalent of taking a strong 60mg tablet of OxyContin. Experts believe that taking merely two tablets of this opioid ball can give the user a “hit”.
Suspicions were raised at the medi-hotel when the Uber Eats bag did not have any receipts or details attached. According to the SA Police when the bags were searched, small amounts of heroin and other drugs were found.
The court was told that Mr Sharma made the deliveries to strangers under the direction of an associate in Melbourne.
He will be sentenced in April.
