Mumbai: One held by NCB in Ephedrine smuggling case

The officers of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday arrested a Rajkot resident in connection with the alleged smuggling attempt of a consignment containing 3.950 kilograms of Ephedrine drugs, meant to be destined to Australia.

According to the NCB, on Friday, NCB officials, had intercepted Ephedrine consignment at MIDC in Andheri (E). The contraband was concealed in Ladies Wears and the consignment had originated from Pune and was destined to Australia.

"Our probe had revealed that the syndicate operated in Pune, Mumbai and Chennai. Role of the accused who hails from Rajkot had surfaced during the investigation after which he was picked up for questioning and was later arrested in the case," said an NCB official.

In the said case, the NCB had also seized 480 grams of Ephedrine from Karve Nagar in Pune, agency sources said. The accused was produced before the concerned court on Sunday which remanded him to NCB custody till January 27.

The NCB officials had carried out six different operations from December 10 to December 15 last year at various places of Mumbai and had seized a total 2.296 kilograms of Amphetamine, 3.906 kilograms of Opium and 2.525 kilograms of Zolpidem tablets and 53.5 grams of black coloured sticky substance purported to be cannabis concealed in clothing items (two Jeans).

The total value of contraband seized in those operations as per the NCB was Rs 13 crore. The agency sources said that the contraband seized from all the operations were destined to be smuggled to foreign countries such as Maldives, Australia, Texas in USA, Dubai, New Zealand, Kuwait and Switzerland, through air courier in Andheri. The agency had also intercepted one Ivorian national and a Santa Cruz resident, in two of the operations.

"In the recent times we have come across several instances wherein contraband had been attempted to smuggle abroad via courier. All measures are being taken to thwart such smuggling by the NCB," said another agency official.

Published on: Sunday, January 23, 2022, 10:23 PM IST