Paradip cocaine seizure: NDPS court seeks Rs 110 cr guarantee for release of cargo ship

A special NDPS court at Kujang in Jagatsinghpur district has sought a whopping guarantee of Rs 110 crore for the release of a cargo ship named MV Debi docked at Paradip port from which cocaine worth Rs 220 crore was seized in November last year.

The guarantee includes Rs 100 crore indemnity bond and Rs 10 crore bank guarantee.

Not only the bank guarantee, but the owners of the ship have been ordered to appear before the court whenever summoned. The owners can neither sell nor alter the colour and modify the ship in any manner without the order of the court.

The order was passed while hearing a petition by the ship’s owners to release the ship from the custody of the Indian Customs Department.

The Customs Department had seized 22 packets of cocaine worth a market value of Rs 220 crore from the cargo ship, MV Debi anchored at Paradip Port on November 30, 2023.

A case was registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 and a probe was launched.

As per reports, the ship arrived at Paradip from Indonesia’s Gresik port and was scheduled to depart for Denmark carrying steel plates from Odisha.

However, a crane operator first noticed some suspicious packets in the ship and informed the authorities who came with a dog squad and seized the packets which turned out to be Cocaine.

It is pertinent to mention here that though the narcotic substance was seized two and a half months ago, the source, destination and mafias involved in it are yet to be disclosed.