Mumbai Customs arrests architect from Goa for possession of Canadian hybrid cannabis

The Mumbai Customs, on Wednesday morning, arrested an out of work architect from Goa for possession of illicit hybrid cannabis curated buds imported from Canada. However, the architect, Anuj Gupta, claimed the illicit cannabis was imported for research purposes.

The parcel from Canada – to be delivered to Benaulim, Goa – was intercepted at Mumbai airport postal sorting office for customs clearance on April 4. It had 103 grams of green dried leaves, which customs officials suspected to be cannabis and sent for narcotics testing. “On confirmation of a positive report, the shipment’s final destination was tracked to Goa. Our Goa Customs unit was alerted to track the suspect for further investigation,” said senior Mumbai Customs official at the airport postal sorting office.

On April 16, the Goa Customs tracked down the address in Benaulim, which was locked. The team, along with the local police, broke down the lock of Gupta’s property and seized cannabis crushers, rolled joints used for smoking weed, 150 grams of cannabis and 110 grams of an unidentified psychotropic substance.

“A manhunt was launched by the Goa Customs and Gupta was arrested and brought to Mumbai for further investigations,” added the senior Mumbai Customs officer privy to the case.

Gupta was questioned and his statement was recorded after gathering electronic evidence from his mobile phone. He was produced in a local court, which remanded him to Customs’ custody for further probe.