Police in India’s Madhya Pradesh state have summoned Amazon’s native executives because it investigates a case the place the e-commerce platform was allegedly used for smuggling marijuana, a police official mentioned on Monday.

The police on Sunday arrested two males within the state with 20 kg of marijuana and located they have been utilizing Amazon’s India buying web site to order and smuggle the substance additional to numerous states.

Smugglers used the Amazon India platform to order and ship the drug, which was listed beneath the guise of dry stevia leaves, a pure meals sweetener. The Amazon platform was allegedly used for 1,000 kilograms of such marijuana gross sales up to now, value $148,000 (roughly Rs. 1.1 crore), police alleged in its assertion.

On Monday, Manoj Singh, a senior police official within the district, mentioned Amazon executives have been requested to elucidate how their platform might be used for the sale of banned substances.

“The international company has the power of artificial intelligence, so it’s a big thing happening on their platform,” Singh mentioned. “There is involvement of Amazon at many levels in this marijuana delivery – from providing logistical support to delivery.”

“The lawyers from Amazon will probably visit us tomorrow.”

An Amazon spokesperson mentioned in a press release it was investigating whether or not there was any non-compliance by a vendor.

“We do not allow the listing and sale of products which are prohibited under law to be sold in India,” the assertion mentioned, including the corporate would cooperate with the authorities.

The US firm in India operates a market web site the place sellers can listing their merchandise and Amazon additionally supplies logistics and warehouse servicing to them.

Police officer Singh mentioned his workforce additionally visited one among Amazon’s supply hubs in Gwalior metropolis in Madhya Pradesh as a part of the investigation to get particulars of alleged marijuana supply consignments.

Indian authorities have lately intensified their efforts to crack down on illicit medicine. Many high-profile Indian actors and TV personalities have been beneath scrutiny from narcotics officers since final yr.

© Thomson Reuters 2021