What is 'black cocaine'; the rare drug mainly 'used by the wealthy'
Chandigarh, April 12
In September last year, the NCB in Mumbai had held a Bolivian woman with at least 3.2 kilogrammes of high-grade black cocaine worth Rs 13 crore. But what is ‘black cocaine,’ the rare substance, been assumed to be used by the wealthy
✈️NCB-Mumbai ACTION
✈️3.2kg BLACK COCAINE seized
✈️Bolivian woman & Nigerian held
✈️Mumbai/Goa links
✈️Drugs hidden in luggage@PMOIndia @HMOIndia @BhallaAjay26 @PIBHomeAffairs@PIBMumbai #MissionDrugFreeIndia🙏🏻🇮🇳🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/5Ldci7Znca— NCB INDIA (@narcoticsbureau) September 29, 2022
“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.
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.
