Goods seized from container at Visakhapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh test positive for narcotic drugs

Goods seized from container at Visakhapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh test positive for narcotic drugs. The CBI says it used the NCB drug detection kit for testing the goods, and sent samples to the Customs laboratory for further confirmation. The police are leaving no stone unturned to make Vizag a peaceful city, insists Commissioner of Police Ravi Shankar. Based on an Interpol alert, a special CBI team from the Economic Offences Department had come to Visakhapatnam as part of ‘Operation Garuda’, and with the help of its local branch, and the Customs and port authorities, detained a container in a ship that was coming from Santos Port in Brazil.

The good seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a shipping container at the Visakhapatnam Port have tested positive for a variety of narcotic drugs.

Based on an Interpol alert, a special CBI team from the Economic Offences Department had come to Visakhapatnam as part of ‘Operation Garuda’, and with the help of its local branch, and the Customs and port authorities, detained a container in a ship that was coming from Santos Port in Brazil.

As per a CBI release, the goods were classified as ‘Inactive Dried Yeast’. They were being imported by the Sandhya Aqua Export Limited, a company based in Visakhapatnam. The cargo was packed in 1,000 bags of 25 kg each, placed in 20 pallets.

The CBI team had randomly picked 20 bags from each of the pallets. As per the CBI release, all of them tested positive. The CBI used the NCB drug detection kit for testing the goods. The release stated the goods tested positive for cocaine, methaqualone, opium, morphine, codeine, heroin, amphetamines and mescaline.

The CBI team seized the container on March 19 and the raid continued till March 20.

As per the Customs officials, the CBI handed over the seized containers to them for safe keeping. The samples were also sent to the sampling laboratory of the Customs for further confirmation.

The CBI report also mentioned that “during the process of examination, various officers of the Andhra Pradesh Government and the port employees gathered at the site, causing delay in the CBI proceedings.”