Hydroponic ganja worth 2.8cr seized at Surat airport

Surat: The directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) on Saturday seized 8.5kg of hydroponic cannabis (ganja), valued at about Rs 2.80 crore, at Surat International Airport and arrested the 22-year-old passenger in whose checked-in baggage the contraband was found.The passenger was identified as Kamal Roshan Lal, a resident of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. According to officials, he took a domestic Air India Express flight from Amritsar to Delhi and then boarded a connecting flight to Surat.DRI officers identified Lal while he was still aboard the aircraft. After confirming the presence of the suspected narcotics in his baggage, they detained him near the baggage belt during luggage retrieval.Investigators suspect Lal was acting as a carrier and that the hydroponic ganja was meant to be delivered to another location. Officials said Mumbai could be a possible destination, though the exact drop point is yet to be established.The agency described the Amritsar–Delhi–Surat routing as unusual and said it suggested traffickers may be testing alternative domestic transit corridors to evade detection.In earlier cases at Surat International Airport, multiple seizures of hydroponic ganja were linked to consignments allegedly brought from Bangkok and meant for onward movement to Delhi. Officials said the latest seizure reinforces concerns about evolving trafficking patterns and the use of non-traditional routes for high-value narcotics.