TV
Acting on a tip-off, the Air Intelligence team of the Bhubaneswar Customs Department on Saturday seized marijuana worth Rs 7 crore from a passenger at Biju Patnaik International Airport. As per sources, the marijuana was meticulously packed in small packets.
The accused youth is believed to have smuggled the marijuana from Bangkok and was trying to smuggle it to Odisha. This isn’t the first time that the Customs Department seized such a large haul of marijuana from the Bhubaneswar airport.
A few days back on January 7, two women passengers from West Bengal were held with ganja worth over Rs 9 crore in a similar manner. The women had arrived at Bhubaneswar airport from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when they were intercepted during baggage checking.
Also Read: Has Bhubaneswar airport turned into illegal gateway for smuggling of gold and ganja consignments?
In a similar manner, hydroponic weed worth Rs 4 crore was also seized recently from a passenger at Bhubaneswar airport on Jan 14. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials had informed the Customs and other officials regarding the passenger from Kerala travelling from Bangkok.
In this month so far, the Customs Department has recovered contraband worth Rs 20 crore with the back-to-back seizures. Meanwhile, it has come to the fore that an international gang is behind the racket of smuggling the contraband through the Bhubaneswar airport.
Early findings suggest that the narcotics were processed in Germany before being smuggled into India via Malaysia, informed sources. It is suspected that a large international smuggling syndicate is involved in the operation.
Not only ganja, BPIA airport officials have also detected cases of gold smuggling by passengers travelling via Bhubaneswar airport.
In May 2024, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 3.77 kg of gold valued at Rs. 2.79 crore from four passengers at the Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar. The recent seizures of illegal gold, marijuana and other narcotics seem to be turning Bhubaneswar airport, which was once considered one of the busiest and fastest-growing airports in the country, into a marijuana hub.
