Ahmedabad: Customs officials seized 5.5kg of hydroponic marijuana from a passenger at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Saturday. The contraband was found concealed in cookie boxes and a cornflakes packet in the passenger’s hand baggage. This is the third major drug seizure at the city airport in the past week, officials said.According to a Customs department release, officers of the Air Intelligence Unit intercepted a male passenger, a Mumbai resident, who had arrived from Ho Chi Minh City. The interception was based on passenger profiling and X-ray screening of his hand baggage.“During examination of his hand baggage, the officers recovered a green-coloured substance concealed in 24 packets wrapped in aluminium foil, which were further concealed inside three cookies boxes and one corn flakes packet,” the release said.Preliminary testing with an NDPS field testing kit confirmed the substance as ganja, or marijuana. The total weight of the seized contraband was 5,519.7 grams.“The contraband has been seized under the relevant provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and the passenger has been arrested,” according to the release.In earlier cases too, passengers acting as carriers have attempted to conceal narcotics in baggage to evade checks. Sources said the high potency of hydroponic marijuana has contributed to a rise in smuggling attempts.
