Mumbai Crime: Expensive drug found in ‘essential service’ packet

The drug commands between Rs 5,000- Rs 8,000 a nugget, which is about a gram. It first came to light during the Sushant Singh Rajput case, said NCB officers

Taking advantage of the pandemic-induced restrictions, international smugglers are sending drugs to Mumbai labelling their consignments as "essential services". In such case, the Narcotics Control Bureau seized one such packet containing a kind of weed, as expensive as cocaine, worth Rs 1.5 crore on Wednesday.

The anti-drug agency carried out a search on the premises of the international post office at Ballard Estate and recovered a brown carton that had "Mountain House 05 Day emergency food services" written on it. The box had multi strain cannabis that commands Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 per nugget, which is close to a gram.

"Due to continued operations by NCB, the smugglers are taking different routes and developing ideas to smuggle narcotic substances. Now they have been using emergency services due to the pandemic," said Sameer Wankhede, NCB's zonal director.

The cannabis consignment had a fake address on it. "The receiver always keeps a tab on the consignment before picking it. After our searches, he went underground or he might have been tipped by an insider about the raids. We waited for two days but nobody showed up," said Wankhede.

NCB officers said the drug was sent from Canada. The use of multi strain cannabis first came to light last year during the Sushant Singh Rajput case. "This drug is as expensive as cocaine and is made in a greenhouse. It has become very popular among those youngsters who can afford it. The use of such hybrid cannabis is increasing in high-profile parties as well," added Wankhede.

According to the NCB, cannabis strains are either pure or hybrid varieties of the plant-genus Cannabis. Varieties are developed to intensify specific characteristics of the plant, or to differentiate the strain for marketing or to make it more effective as a drug. Variety names are typically chosen by their growers, and often reflect properties of the plant such as taste, colour, smell, or the origin of the variety.