Repeated drug smuggling bids at Amritsar airport baffle security agencies

Repeated attempts to sneak in weed (ganja) through Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport over the past one year have baffled the security agencies. The international airport is being used by drug traffickers as a major transit point.

Customs officials and law-enforcing agencies have arrested several passengers arriving from Southeast Asia and recovered large consignments of cannabis concealed in daily use items.

Traffickers preferred transit point

An NCB said due to its strategic air connectivity with Southeast Asia, especially Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, Amritsar airport had become one of the preferred transit points of drug traffickers

Investigations have revealed that international syndicates with links to Thailand and Malaysia, key hubs in the regional drug trade, are active. Thailand, in particular, has emerged as a major source of high-potency weed

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Recently, customs officials arrested two passengers at the Amritsar airport from Bangkok and confiscated 2.55 kg of ganja, valued at Rs 2.55 crore in the international market, concealed inside tin containers and shampoo bottles.

This seizure is the latest in a string of similar busts at the airport over the past year. In May 2025, customs intercepted 22.3 kg of weed worth about Rs 22 crore from three passengers, while another passenger was caught the same month with 7-kg ganja valued at Rs 7 crore.

In April 2025, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Customs recovered 6.36 kg of ganja from a passenger upon his arrival from Bangkok; in a separate case, a passenger was arrested with 7.7 kg of the drug hidden in packets of biscuits and candies.

Similarly, in March 2025, customs foiled two smuggling attempts — one involving 5 kg of high-grade ganja from Thailand and another where a passenger named Mandeep Singh, arriving from Malaysia, was caught with 8.17 kg of suspected cannabis worth Rs 8 crore.

A custom official on anonymity said drugs were often hidden inside food packets, shampoo bottles, tin containers, and between layers of clothing. Some traffickers even vacuum-seal the contraband to suppress its odour and disguise it among the luggage, he revealed.

Investigations has revealed that smugglers operate as part of international syndicates with links to Thailand and Malaysia, both key hubs in the regional drug trade. Thailand, in particular, has emerged as a major source of high-potency weed following cannabis' partial decriminalisation there in 2022, the official revealed.

“Due to its strategic air connectivity with Southeast Asia, especially Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, the Amritsar airport has become one of the preferred transit points for drug traffickers, though other airports across the nation have also witnessed the surge,” said an NCB official.

The massive profit margins in the Indian black market — where ganja fetches nearly a Rs1 crore a kg -- further fuel the smuggling attempts, said the NCB official, who revealed that a study was going on about the modus operendi and modules behind it.