Mumbai: Rs 25 crore worth of hydrohonic weed seized at airport; 3 arrested | India News
NEW DELHI: The customs officials at Mumbai international airport seized hydrohonic weed of worth nearly Rs 25 crore on Thursday. Three people have been arrested by the officials.Hydroponic weed refers to cannabis that is grown without soil, using a nutrient-rich water solution to deliver essential minerals directly to the plant roots. Last month, Air intelligence unit (AIU) officers with the customs department seized 5.25kg of hydroponic weed (ganja) worth Rs 5 crore from a passenger at the Coimbatore airport and arrested a 24-year-old native of Kerala for smuggling the same into the country from Bangkok in Thailand. Trichy Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate on Thursday posted a message on its X handle, stating the AIU officers, in coordination with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, nabbed Muhammad Fazil, 24, of Villiappally in Kozhikode district in Kerala, at the Coimbatore airport around 11.30pm on Wednesday with more than 5kg hydroponic ganja based on intelligence inputs from the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management in Delhi. He arrived at the airport from Bangkok via Singapore by Scoot Airlines.Unlike regular ganja, hydroponic ganja is cultivated in a controlled atmosphere and is highly potent. Cocktail varieties are known for their different flavours and effects on smokers and were not easily available in India. Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) Chennai zone’s Director P Aravindhan said, “The tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content in hydroponic ganja is 30% compared to 3% found in regular ganja smuggled from Andhra Pradesh. It is this content that makes it as potent as cocaine and drives those consuming it to become addictive.” However, NCB has not come across the prevalence of hydroponic ganja consumption unlike synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine.
