The Thane Excise officials have been given eight patrolling boats to crackdown on the liquor mafia that has been increasingly using the water route to smuggle illicit liquor in Mumbai. In the past two days, the Excise Department has caught liquor worth over Rs 25 lakh and arrested 15 smugglers. The ED is keeping an eye on the smuggling of liquor through the water route, and will now patrol the waters even outside Thane.

Excise Commissioner Kantilal Umap has directed officials to take action against smugglers of liquor via Thane creek. The local police and the Excise Department had already been acting against those who manufacture liquor at Dombivli, Desai and Mumbra creeks.