Mumbai: In what is said to be a first of its kind operation, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) swooped onto a raid party being held on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and detained around a dozen persons, including the son of a leading Bollywood actor.
The NCB has detained around 10 persons in this connection, an official said Sunday.
A few of the detainees are linked to a celebrity or a high-profile person, he said.
Based on a tip-off that a party was scheduled on the ship, an NCB team, led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede, had raided the Goa-bound cruise ship Saturday evening and recovered drugs from some of the passengers, the official said.
“The agency has detained 8 to 10 persons. They were brought to the NCB office in south Mumbai and questioned till early morning,” he said.
Talking to reporters at the entrance of the NCB office, Wankhede said, “We have intercepted some persons and their investigation is on. It will be premature to say anything as of now.”
When asked about the names of the detained persons linked to a celebrity, he refused to comment.
Officials said that some days back, they had received a tip-off on the proposed rave party that was planned aboard a cruise ship bound on a Mumbai-Goa voyage, setting sail from the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai.
To avoid detection, the NCB sleuths booked themselves on that cruise as ordinary passengers and they soon found some of their co-passengers consuming drugs.
Then the NCB launched its full-scale raid, detained at least a dozen passengers, and seized different drugs of various quantities.
The ship was ordered to turn and sail back to the ICT at Ballard Pier where the detained passengers were offloaded along with their baggage.
A comprehensive search of their belongings as also the cruise ship is being carried out, while the detainees were sent for a medical examination.
PNN & Agencies