Perfume mistaken for opium, Indian man has US visa revoked, faces deportation

An Indian-origin man in Arkansas, Kapil Raghu, is trying to get his US visa reinstated after being wrongly arrested when police mistook a perfume bottle for drugs. His lawyer said Raghu now faces the risk of deportation because of the mistake. The incident happened on May 3, when Raghu was stopped by Benton police for a minor traffic issue. During the stop, officers found a small bottle labelled “opium” in his car. Believing it to be the illegal drug opium, they arrested him, even though Raghu kept explaining that it was just a designer perfume.

According to The Guardian, the whole event was recorded on police body cameras. In the video, one officer can be heard saying, “You got a vial of opium that was in your centre console.”

At the time of the arrest, Raghu was working as a food delivery driver. He later told the Saline Courier, a local newspaper, that he had followed all the rules and was shocked and confused by what happened.