Officers of the customs commissionerate, Lucknow seized around 200 kg of ganja worth Rs 10 lakh from a New Delhi-truck bound in the outskirts of Kanpur. Tariq Mabood, assistant commissioner, customs (Prev) led the team, which included Arvind Kumar and Sunil Tandon both superintendents and Lavlesh Kumar, inspector.

According to Ajay Dixit, commissioner, customs (prev), Lucknow, the truck was seized on a tip-off provided by intelligence that the contraband was coming from Bihar via Allahabad/Kanpur and would head towards New Delhi via Kannauj. Accordingly, the team kept surveillance on the NH-2 and managed to find the truck parked at a dhaba near Mandhana, around 25 km from Kanpur. The ganja was found concealed in an overhead compartment in the driver's cabin.

The driver and the khalasi have been arrested in this connection.

Dixit said that the customs (Prev) commissionerate, Lucknow is engaged in checking movement of narcotics, fake Indian currency notes, betel nuts, garlic, foodgrains etc through Indo-Nepal border and has been keeping a special watch to detect smuggling.

Recently, the department seized 100 kg of ganja valued at Rs 7 lakh from AC coach of Saptkranti Express, wherein a woman involved in carrying the contraband was arrested.

In this financial year, the customs department has so far seized about 575 kg of ganja valued at about Rs 36 lakh.