Mumbai DRI seizes heroin hidden in cooking oil cargo

Mumbai, Oct 8 (IANS) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence's (DRI) Mumbai unit has seized a consignment of 25 kg heroin concealed in a consignment of groundnut oil at the Nhava Port Trust in Navi Mumbai, and arrested one person, officials said on Friday.

Following a tipoff, the DRI sleuths swooped on the port on October 4 and detected the huge narcotics contraband, valued at Rs 125 crore, among boxes of a cooking oil container arriving from Iran and are now probing the possibility of a bigger drug smuggling racket with international ramifications for India and other countries.

Further investigations led the DRI to businessman Sandeep Thakker in south Mumbai who admitted that he had given his IMPEX Code to a friend, Jayesh Sanghvi in return for a commission of Rs 10,000 on every import order from Iran.

Thakkar claimed that since he had been doing business with Sanghvi since over a decade, he trusted him and shared the IMPEX Code, but he had no knowledge that the latter was allegedly indulging in narcotics smuggling.

Following Thakkar's statement, the DRI nabbed Sanghvi on Wednesday, and charged him under relevant sections of the NDPS Act. He was remanded to DRI custody till October 11, and his past import records are being probed.