Law enforcement authorities have seized more than 3,000 kilogram drugs from a boat off the coast of Gujarat from the Arabian sea and arrested five individuals.
While the raid and arrest were carried out on Tuesday, the Indian Navy shared the details of it on Wednesday. The five individuals who were detained from the boat were later brought to the Porbandar port and handed over to the local police which will book them.
The case is likely to be taken over and investigated by the National Investigation Agency in the coming days. The identity of the five individuals who were arrested is suspected either to be Pakistani or Iranian. However, they are likely to be ‘small fish’ whose only job was to drop off the consignment to their handlers in India. Their questioning is unlikely to reveal the individuals or groups who bought these huge consignments which were likely to be then distributed in India and other countries.
The said operation which was based on intelligence inputs that was generated by central agencies involved cooperation between the Indian Navy, the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad.
The Boeing P-8I aircraft, a multi-role Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Anti-Submarine Warfare (LRMR-ASW) aircraft used by the Indian Navy, was pressed into service to locate the suspected boat. After being spotted, an Indian naval warship was diverted to intercept and apprehend the suspicious boat.
Of the over 3,100 kg of contraband seized, more than 3,000 Kgs is Charas, about 150 Kg is Methamphetamine while 25 Kgs is Morphine and has been termed by the Indian Navy as the largest seizure of narcotics in recent times.
An official of the NCB told the media that it was the largest ever seizure offshore [in terms of quantity] in the country.
In May 2023, in a massive drug bust, nearly 2,500 kilogram of methamphetamine worth around Rs 12,000 crore was seized from a vessel in Indian waters along the Kerala coast in a joint operation by the Navy and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). A Pakistani national was arrested from the boat.
In September 2021, around 3000 kilograms of heroin was seized from two containers at Gujarat’s Mundra port, run by the Adani Group. The consignment had come from Afghanistan, one of the largest illegal producers of opium.
The regular seizure of such a high quantity of drugs, the majority of which are being sent from Pakistan coasts, have become a matter of serious concern for law enforcement agencies as it is the money made from distribution and commerce related aspects of these drugs that are used to fuel terrorism and separatism in India.
According to an official, it is a common knowledge that out of every ten such consignments that are slated for India, less than 50 percent of them are apprehended while the rest are successfully offloaded in what is attributed to corrupt and inept officials.
Sources said that almost all of the drugs that are being illegally sold in India and being consumed by people of young age are coming from Afghanistan-Pakistan. According to them, after being off-loaded in India, these drugs are then sent to other countries including Canada from where they are couriered off to European countries.
Given the vast coast line that India has on its Western borders, it is not possible for agencies to keep an eye on every each of the massive area and unless a stringent check and security measures are put by Pakistani navy so that these small boats do not leave its coast, drugs will continue to enter India and other countries.
Counting of the quantity of drugs was carried out amid tight police presence at the Porbandar SOG office last night. Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted his congratulations to the NCB, the Indian Navy and the Gujarat Police.
The Home Minister tweeted that making Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a drug-free India a success agencies have seized a large quantity of drugs smuggled from abroad.
“In a joint operation of NCB, Navy and Gujarat Police, 3132 kg of drugs have been seized. Such a massive drug seizure shows the government’s commitment to the Drug Free India campaign. I congratulate NCB, Navy and Gujarat Police for this,” he said.