07 July,2024 12:05 PM IST | Thane | mid-day online correspondent
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An official on Sunday said that the police have arrested two persons in the Thane drugs case after seizing mephedrone valued at Rs 8.6 lakh from them in Maharashtra's Thane district, reported news agency PTI.
Acting on a tip, a team of the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) laid a trap opposite a hotel at Kalyan Phata on old Mumbai-Pune road in Daighar area on Thursday night and caught the duo in the Thane drugs case, reported PTI.
The ANC sleuths seized 86 gms of mephedrone powder from them, the official from Shil-Daighar police station told PTI.
The two persons, aged 35 and 42, were arrested on Friday and booked under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he said.
The police were probing from where the accused sourced the contraband and to whom they planned to sell it.
In another case, the officials on Sunday said the Customs has seized seven exotic birds and three monkeys, smuggled alive from Thailand, at the Mumbai airport and detained two passengers, reports PTI.
A forest department official said of the seven birds, three were found dead while unboxing the consignment while the survivors would be sent back to the east Asian country, reported PTI.
The baggage of the two passengers who landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Friday was searched on suspicion and seven flame bowerbirds, two cottontop tamarin monkeys and a marmoset monkey were found concealed inside, said a customs official, reported PTI.
Three of the birds were found dead, he said.
The surviving birds and monkeys were handed over to the Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) for treatment.
They were dehydrated and stressed, said Pawan Sharma, president of RAWW and honorary wildlife warden with the Maharashtra forest department, reported PTI.
They were treated by Dr Rina Dev and a team of rescuers and rehabilitators and handed back to the customs, he said, reported PTI.
As the animals and birds are not of Indian origin, they would be sent back to Thailand as per the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, said the forest official, reported PTI.
(With inputs from PTI)
