India: Coast Guard intercepts fleeing boat, recovers contraband valued at $159K

In a joint operation between the Indian Coast Guard and the Narcotics Control Bureau, a suspicious boat with four crew members were apprehended. The incident took place on Monday 21^stNovember, when the suspicious vessel was trying to flee at high speeds, near Rameshwaram in the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu.

On investigation, 300kg of marijuana in eight gunny bags and 500gm of Hashish oil were recovered from the boat. The market value of the seized contraband is estimated at Rs.1.3 crores or $159,000.

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This comes just a week after the ICG thwarted a smuggling attempt in the same region, involving fishing boats from India and Sri Lanka. Back then,104 bags of Tendu leaves, weighing nearly 2.8 tons and worth Rs.2 crores (USD245K) was recovered from the boats.Leaves of tree species 'Diospyros melanoxylon' are used as wrappers of tobacco to produce bidi. This tree is commonly known as "tendu".