The Indian Coast Guard(ICG) and Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad(ATS) have seized heroin worth Rs 350 crore from a Pakistani boat off the state coast and apprehended its six crew members.
The ICG and ATS personnel seized the boat Al Sakar, which had 50 kg heroin on board, in the Arabian Sea. The operation was conducted during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. The boat with six crew members on board was brought to the state’s Jakhau port for further investigation.
An official statement said the the joint operation was carried out during the intervening night of October 7 and 8, when a Pakistani boat was observed moving suspiciously in Indian waters, five nautical miles inside notional International Maritime Boundary Line and 40 nautical miles from Jakhau, adds “On being challenged, the Pakistani boat started evasive manoeuvring. Two fast interceptor class of ships — C-429 and C-454 — deployed by the ICG for patrolling in areas close to the IMBL, intercepted the Pakistani boat and forced it to stop”
During the search of the boat, 50 kg of narcotics was found concealed in five gunny bags. The market value of the drug is estimated to be Rs 350 crore, adding that the boat was brought to Jakhau for further joint investigation by all agencies along with the six crew members, who were apprehended.
In the last one year , this is the sixth such joint operation by the IGC and state ATS in the and second such operation in less than a month when 40 kg drugs was seized from a Pakistani boat on September 14.
In April 2022, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized 205.6 kg heroin worth Rs 1,439 crore from a container near the Kandla port in Kutch, while in May, it had recovered 56 kg of cocaine, estimated to be worth around Rs 500 crore, from a container near the Mundra port.
It seems like Gujarat coast is emerging as the preferred route to smuggle the drug consignments,the State ATS and the ICG and other agencies had counter similar attempts of drug smuggling before and also seized foreign nationals with massive quantities of narcotics which they planned to smuggle into India via Gujarat Coast
