Hydroponic weed, diamonds and gold worth Rs 14 crore seized at Mumbai airport
Mumbai (PTI): Customs officials seized hydroponic weed, diamonds and gold, collectively worth about Rs 14 crore, at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport over two days and arrested an airport staffer and a few others, officials said on Saturday.
The seizures were made between December 30 and December 31 in separate cases, they said.
Officials from the Airport Commissionerate, Mumbai Customs Zone-III, confiscated 8.008 kg of suspected hydroponic weed from a passenger who had arrived from Bangkok, the official said.
The contraband is valued at around Rs 8.008 crore in the illicit market, he said, adding that the passenger was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
In a separate case, 1.946 kg of suspected hydroponic weed worth about Rs 1.946 crore was recovered from a passenger who also had arrived from Bangkok, the official said.
Hydroponic weed, a potent and expensive form of ganja, is cultivated using water-based, nutrient-rich solutions instead of traditional soil methods.
Officials said a passenger was intercepted and 849.6 carats of diamonds, valued at about Rs 2.52 crore, were recovered from him. The precious stones had been allegedly concealed inside his body cavity, they said.
Customs also seized 1,470 grams of 24-carat gold dust in wax form, valued at around Rs 1.87 crore, from a passenger and a staffer attached to Air India Airport Services Limited (AIASL), an official said.
The gold dust was allegedly passed by one Bangladeshi transit passenger to another, who then handed it over to the AIASL employee inside the airport.
In another case, Customs booked a passenger after recovering 89 grams of 24-carat gold rhodium-plated buttons worth Rs 11.35 lakh, officials said.
Acting on specific information, a Customs team also recovered 160 grams of 24-carat gold worth Rs 20.41 lakh from two passengers, they said.
Efforts are being made to trace the wider networks linked to the seized gold, diamonds and drugs, the officials added.
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Rupee falls 4 paise to 90.24 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee opened weak and declined 4 paise to 90.24 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, as geopolitical uncertainties triggered by the US intervention in Venezuela fuelled the demand for the American currency.
According to forex traders, the rupee is expected to trade lower due to geopolitical development, even though a lower crude prices could provide some cushion.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.21 against the US dollar and lost further to trade at 90.24 against the greenback in early deals.
On Friday, the rupee settled lower by 22 paise at 90.20 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.36 per cent higher at 98.50.
The US on Saturday carried out a military operation in Venezuela an deposed President Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump said the US would "run" the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at USD 60.70 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex declined 135.81 points to 85,626.20 in early trade, while the Nifty was down 25.75 points to 26,302.80.
Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers, picking up equities worth Rs 289.80 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
The latest RBI data released on Friday showed India's forex reserves jumped by USD 3.293 billion to USD 696.61 billion in the week to December 26. The overall kitty had increased by USD 4.368 billion to USD 693.318 billion in the previous reporting week.
