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

“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.