Maharashtra: Man held with mephedrone worth Rs 14.24 lakh in Thane

Police have seized mephedrone valued at Rs 1424 lakh and arrested a man in this connection in Maharashtras Thane district officials said on Wednesday reported news agency PTIBased on specific information the police intercepted the man identified as Aman Tamin Gadkari 23 in the Kausa locality in the early hours of Tuesday and recovered 712 gm of mephedrone MD a banned synthetic drug from his possession senior police inspector Vijay Kumar Deshmukh said reported PTIThe accused a resident of Mumbra was carrying the contraband with the intention of selling it in the area he saidA case has been registered against the accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act the police addedHydroponic weed diamonds and gold worth Rs 14 crore seized at Mumbai airportMeanwhile customs officials seized hydroponic weed diamonds and gold collectively worth about Rs 14 crore at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport over two days and arrested an airport staffer and a few others officials said on Saturday reported PTIThe seizures were made between December 30 and December 31 in separate cases they saidOfficials from the Airport Commissionerate Mumbai Customs ZoneIII confiscated 8008 kg of suspected hydroponic weed from a passenger who had arrived from Bangkok the official said reported PTIThe contraband is valued at around Rs 8008 crore in the illicit market he said adding that the passenger was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS ActIn a separate case 1946 kg of suspected hydroponic weed worth about Rs 1946 crore was recovered from a passenger who also had arrived from Bangkok the official saidHydroponic weed a potent and expensive form of ganja is cultivated using waterbased nutrientrich solutions instead of traditional soil methodsOfficials said a passenger was intercepted and 8496 carats of diamonds valued at about Rs 252 crore were recovered from him The precious stones had been allegedly concealed inside his body cavity they said reported PTICustoms also seized 1470 grams of 24carat gold dust in wax form valued at around Rs 187 crore from a passenger and a staffer attached to Air India Airport Services Limited AIASL an official said reported PTIThe gold dust was allegedly passed by one Bangladeshi transit passenger to another who then handed it over to the AIASL employee inside the airportIn another case Customs booked a passenger after recovering 89 grams of 24carat gold rhodiumplated buttons worth Rs 1135 lakh officials saidActing on specific information a Customs team also recovered 160 grams of 24carat gold worth Rs 2041 lakh from two passengers they saidEfforts are being made to trace the wider networks linked to the seized gold diamonds and drugs the officials addedWith inputs from PTI