Rs 10 lakh khat leaves seized, two Yemen Airways staff held

MUMBAI: A station duty manager and an assistant loader working for Yemen Airways were arrested by Customs authorities for smuggling 9kg of khat leaves from Yemen at Mumbai international airport early on Friday morning.
Air intelligence unit (AIU) of Customs arrested duty manager Yahya Abdullah Alhaddad and loader Mangesh Pawar under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.AIU said Customs officials at Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport on Friday intercepted Pawar while he was attempting to clear baggage through the screening machine at the arrival hall of terminal 2.

It transpired that Pawar was working as a traffic assistant-cum-loader for Yemen Airways. When questioned about the baggage, he told officials that he collected the duffle bag on the instructions of duty manager Yahya, to be screened through the staff gate, to come out of the Customs area.
The baggage was opened for examination on suspicion, which resulted in the recovery of the leaves, costing around Rs 10 lakh. Since khat leaves fall under NDPS, prohibited for import, it was seized.
“During interrogation, Yahya said he was not aware about about the presence of khat leaves in the baggage, and it was sent to him by his friend, Ahmad, from Aden in Yemen. It was booked in the name of Saleh Naseem Abdullah, who arrived by Yemen Airways on Friday. He later said that he was aware about the contents in the baggage being khat leaves, which were imported for personal use,” said an official. Advocate Ravi Hirani said his client had no knowledge about the goods, had not imported them, and was wrongly charged under NDPS Act.
In July 2018, the Directorate Revenue of Intelligence (DRI) busted an international racket with the seizure of 132kg of khat leaves worth Rs 3.5 crore smuggled into India from Ethiopia. It was the first huge seizure in the country after it was banned on February 27, 2018.