Cocaine worth Rs 220 crore seized from a foreign cargo ship anchored at Paradip port will be sent to the National Forensic Science Laboratory to ascertain the exact nature and chemical composition of the narcotics substance.
As per the information by the Customs Department, the seized contraband will be sent to a government laboratory in Kolkata, Hyderabad, or New Delhi for test. The final decision in this regard will be taken after the Court’s permission.
The process for it has already been started. The customs officials are claiming to have received important information after questioning the crew members of the ship.
As per the information received by the Customs officials, the ship was anchored at Jebel Ali port in Saudi Arabia on October 11, before its departure from Indonesia port. New crew members took charge of the ship before it departed from Indonesia.
Customs officials are currently undertaking the investigation to know from where more than 20 kg of the narcotic drug was smuggled in the ship. MV Debi ship has never entered India earlier. Under the circumstances, the seizure of the contraband has multiplied the problems for the ship.
As many as 21 crew members of the ship including the captain are under the scanner of the Customs Department and they are currently being questioned about the seized contraband. The process to question the owner of the ship from Indonesia has also been initiated in this regard.
Notably, Customs officials had seized more than 20 kg of cocaine worth Rs 220 crore from a cargo ship anchored at Paradip Port on Thursday night. After receiving intelligence inputs that a few suspected packets of drugs were concealed in the Panama-registered ship MV Debi berthed at the Paradip International Cargo Terminal, they searched the ship that had arrived from the Gresik port in Indonesia.