Mumbai Customs, DRI destroy drugs worth around Rs 177 crore

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The officials of the Mumbai Customs and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) destroyed 24.73 kg of seized drugs worth approximately Rs 177 crore in Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai on Tuesday, an official said, reported the PTI.

A high-level drug destruction committee of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC), comprising senior officials from the Mumbai Customs Zone-I and DRI, destroyed drugs including heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and other narcotic substances by incineration at Taloja in Navi Mumbai, the official said, according to the PTI.

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As per an official release, this is the first such drug destruction carried out in this fiscal.

In the last financial year, Mumbai Customs Zone-I had destroyed 215.27 kg of drugs valued at Rs 1,525 crore, seized by the postal appraisal section (PAS), special investigation and intelligence branch (SIIB) of Customs and the DRI, the news agency reported on Tuesday.

Two held with LSD, cannabis worth Rs 13.43 lakh in Thane

Meanwhile, in an another incident, two persons have been arrested for alleged possession of LSD and cannabis worth Rs 13.43 lakh in Maharashtra's Thane city, the police had said on Monday, according to the PTI.

A team from the Vartak Nagar police station in Thane apprehended the accused who were identified as Swaroop Jitendra Sawant (23) and Sanket Sandeep Lad (26), near a mall on Saturday, an official said.

On searching them, the duo were allegedly found in possession of 58 LSD dots and 9.551 gm of cannabis, the official said.

The value of the seizure was worth Rs 13.43 lakh, he said.

According to the police, the accused procured the drugs from one Sahil Augustine of Maharashtra's Thane and Devesh Trivedi, a resident of Navi Mumbai, and were planning to sell the narcotics substances in Navi Mumbai but before they could sell the drugs they were nabbed by the police officials, the news agency reported on Monday.

The accused were later booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, an official said, adding that the efforts are underway to track down Augustine and Trivedi and nab them, the PTI reported.

(with PTI inputs)