Delhi Customs destroyed 328 kg Narcotic Drugs worth Rs. 294 Crore along with 80.2 lakhs sticks of Foreign Origin Cigarettes

As part of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Ministry of Finance’s Special Campaign 3.0, the Customs Preventive Zone, Delhi, destroyed 328 kg of narcotic substances worth Rs. 284 crore and 80.2 lakh sticks of foreign origin cigarettes worth Rs. 9.85 crore in a safe and non-hazardous manner in the presence of Secretary, D/o Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Chairman, CBIC; and Member (Compliance Management),

The Revenue Secretary, CBIC Chairman, and CBIC Member (Compliance Management), as well as other senior Ministry of Finance officials, inspected the unlawful products before they were destroyed.

Revenue Secretary Shri Sanjay Malhotra remarked in his address on the occasion that the destruction of illegal products is a continual process done by the Customs department outside of the Special Campaign as well, but that the Special Campaign has given this process a boost.

Drawing a parallel between the destruction of illegal goods and the burning of Ravana during the Dussehra festival, Shri Malhotra stated that today’s actions represent the triumph of good over evil and pledged the department’s resolve to continue its fight against the drug menace in order to save future generations.

Today, 29 kilogrammes of heroin, 6 kg of cocaine, 7 kg of amphetamine, and 286 kg of Khat leaves, also known as ‘Catha Edulis’, are being burned. The majority of the heroin was confiscated by the department in 2005-06 and 2009-10, with a small amount seized in 2022-23. The remaining narcotic narcotics were seized between 2022 and 2023. The majority of the foreign-origin cigarettes being destroyed today were captured in 2018, with some seized in 2023. The agency seized these cigarettes because they were trafficked into India in contravention of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003.

The illicit foreign-origin cigarettes were not packaged with the required health and graphic warnings. The NDPS substances and Foreign Origin Cigarettes were incinerated in accordance with the Hazardous and Other Wastes (M and TM) Rules, 2016 at M/s Biotic Waste Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, a facility that has been duly authorised by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to destroy narcotic substances, cigarettes, and other bio-degradable waste, including bio-medical waste.

CBIC has scaled up activities under Special Campaign for Disposal of Pending Matters (SCDPM) 3.0 in the third week of October 2023 which saw destruction of 365 kg of narcotic substances worth Rs. 1,000 crore and 1.35 crore foreign origin cigarette sticks worth Rs. 13 crore. The department has also weeded out 8,308 physical files and disposed off 9,304 kg scrap, thus freeing up of additional office space of 46,565 sq. ft. Present destruction of narcotic drugs and cigarettes by Customs Preventive Zone, Delhi, is an effort to clean up space towards spreading the message of cleanliness.

India, as a responsible member of the international community, has been particularly active in global efforts to combat the drug epidemic. India is a signatory to several United Nations drug-control treaties. The Narcotics, Drugs, and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 was adopted by the Indian Parliament to give effect to such Treaties.

The Indian Customs, in addition to its primary function of revenue collection, also actively takes preventive action against smuggling of contraband and narcotic drugs. Customs officers collect intelligence information from various sources to interdict any incident of smuggling of narcotic drugs through air/sea/land, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.