Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in a joint operation with Indian Coast Guard has seized 40KG heroin worth ₹200 crore from a Pakistani fishing boat in the Arabian Sea off the Gujarat coast.
The agencies have also held six crew members — Pakistani nationals who were aboard the boat that was six miles inside the Indian waters.
According to officials, the fishing boat carrying drugs was intercepted mid-sea by a joint team of the Coast Guard and ATS near Jakhau harbour in Kutch district.
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The ATS and Coast Guard officials along with the seized boat are expected to reach the Jakhau coast later in the day. The officials said the contraband was destined for Punjab after delivering it in Gujarat coast.
Since the Gujarat coast has emerged as the preferred route to smuggle the drug consignments, the State ATS and the Coast Guard and other agencies had foiled similar attempts of drug smuggling in the past also and caught foreign nationals with huge quantities of narcotics which they planned to smuggle into India via the Gujarat coast.
Earlier, The ATS jointly with Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized around 40KG heroin worth ₹200 crore from a container loaded with scraps from Kolkata Port.
The drug consignment had apparently arrived in a container loaded with scraps from Dubai in February this year. For Kolkata drug cargo, the ATS team jointly acted with DRI after it received a tip-off from its sources regarding the parcels of heroin hidden in gear boxes lying in a container near the port.
According to Gujarat DGP Ashish Bhatia, the consignment was sent by one SSK General Trading LLC of Dubai Bay and as per the records the agencies have scrutinised after seizing the drug parcels that were neatly hidden in the gear boxes.
When the ATS and DRI officials opened the container, they found 36 gear boxes out of which a dozen boxes were marked with white ink. Seventy-two packets of heroin were found when those marked boxes were opened.
Also read | Police seize 75 kg heroin near Mundra port in Gujarat
It may be noted that the ATS has been busting the drug smuggling via sea route in joint operation with Indian Coast Guard, DRI, Punjab Police, NCB and Delhi Police.
In 2022, it has seized total over 1300KG heroin worth ₹6,800 crore in various operations carried out in Gujarat, Delhi and Kolkatta.
