Trucks carrying apples are being used to transport drugs, officials said (Representational)
The excise department have foiled a bid to smuggle drugs in apple boxes from Kashmir to Punjab and impounded a truck with 120 kg of poppy seeds in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, officials said on Tuesday.
An excise department team intercepted the Punjab-bound truck at Lakhanpur on Monday night and recovered several boxes of apples, containing a total of 120 kg poppy seeds, they said.
Truck driver Rajinder Singh was arrested and a case has been registered after the seizure, they said.
The officials said the truck was used to smuggle poppy seeds in apple boxes from the Kashmir Valley.
There are reports that large-scale smuggling of narcotics is being carried out in the garb of transporting apples from the valley as trucks carrying the fruit are seldom checked, they added.