DRI Seizes 591.3 kg Ganja Brought From Nepal Into Uttar Pradesh

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the anti-smuggling agency under the Ministry of Finance, has seized 591.3 kg of ganja in Uttar Pradesh. The cannabis was moving in a truck that officers suspect had carried it across the border from Nepal. The action was taken during 17 and 18 October 2026.

How the trap was laid

The agency had specific information that a truck loaded with ganja would enter Uttar Pradesh through Sonauli, a crossing on the Nepal border. Officers of the DRI unit at Gorakhpur mounted a watch and worked in step with teams at Lucknow, Patna and Varanasi. The surveillance ran for more than four hours before the suspect vehicle was singled out and stopped on the road that runs between Gorakhpur and Kushinagar.

Cavities built into the truck

A close search of the vehicle exposed two hollows that had been fabricated inside it for the purpose. One lay above the hood and the second behind the seat of the driver. The two held 81 packets of ganja weighing 591.3 kg together. Compartments of this kind are built so that an ordinary check of the cabin or the load bed turns up nothing, and finding them needs a dismantling search rather than a glance.

The law used

The entire consignment, along with the truck used to carry it, was seized under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the central law that governs narcotic and psychotropic offences in India and provides for the seizure of the conveyance used in such a crime.

Why the case matters

The DRI treats the seizure as proof that intelligence-led work, rather than random checking, is what breaks narcotic supply chains and uncovers the refined hiding methods traffickers now use. It also points to the need for steady watch over border routes along which contraband is suspected to travel into India.