In the wake of the arrest of a Kerala-based fruit importer in connection with the seizure of narcotic drugs worth nearly ₹1,500 crore at Vashi in Maharashtra by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) earlier this week, the Excise department on Wednesday inspected a godown belonging to the accused at Kalady near here.
DRI sleuths seized 198 kg of methamphetamine and 9 kg of cocaine from a truck carrying imported oranges on September 30 and arrested Vigin Verghese, managing director of the importing company, two days later.
“We undertook the inspection after learning that the godown belonged to the arrested person. It was run by the brother of the accused. However, we did not find any contraband from the facility,” said B. Tenymon, Assistant Excise Commissioner, Ernakulam.
The firm used to receive imported fruit consignments, mostly from Mumbai, which was then distributed to various parts of Kerala. Excise sleuths have collected information about the consignments dispatched from the godown.
A team led by Mr. Tenymon, the Aluva Excise circle inspector and the Kalady range inspector carried out the inspection. The Excise had already beefed up their campaign against drugs in the wake of the surge in narcotics deals.
