Bid to smuggle ganja from Thailand foiled at Chennai airport; 2 passengers held

Chennai: Customs authorities have foiled a bid to smuggle 11.9 kg of Ganja at the international airport here and arrested two passengers in this connection.

The department sleuths intercepted two different passengers who arrived here from Thailand on September 18 and during the examination of their baggage, they retrieved the contraband, a press release from the Customs Department said on Sunday.

In the first incident, the authorities examined the baggage of a male passenger who arrived from Bangkok and found six polythene packets. Field drug testing confirmed the substance in the polythene packets were Cannabis (Ganja/Marijuana) weighing 5.9 kg.

In the second incident occurred on the same day (September 18), the department officials examined the baggage of a woman passenger and recovered the goods which were concealed inside. The seized goods were confirmed to be 6 kg of Cannabis (Ganja/Marijuana), the release said.

In total, 11.9 kg of the Ganja was seized from the two passengers and during interrogation the passengers confirmed that they had been promised monetary compensation for smuggling of the narcotics into the country.

"The passengers were arrested under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act, 1985.", the release added.