Kerala: In a major raid, the NCB, Indian Navy and Coast Guards on Saturday seized about 2500 kg of high purity methamphetamine obtained from Death Crescent worth about Rs 15000 crore in Indian waters. The raid was carried out with the help of Marine Commandos and is believed to be the biggest consignment of contraband. Taking note of the massive seizure, top officials informed that they are waiting for the exact market value which could go up to Rs 15,000 crore.
A suspected Pakistani national was detained in a joint operation by the NCB with the Indian Navy and Coast Guard. The seizure was a part of Operation Samudragupt, which targeted maritime smuggling of drugs originating from Afghanistan. According to officials, the name of Haji Dawood & Sons was written on the package.
“This is the third major seizure made by NCB in the last one and a half years in connection with seaborne smuggling through the southern route. A total of about 3200 kgs of methamphetamine, 500 kgs of heroin and 529 kgs of hashish have been seized in the operation so far. Apart from the NCB operations, Inputs were shared with Sri Lanka and Maldives, resulting in seizures. India’s leadership in maritime security of the region. Largest seizure of methamphetamine in the country,” reads NCB’s press release.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, OPS, Deputy Director General said on the biggest ever drug seizure. “NCB and Navy carried out a successful operation in the Indian Ocean. It is the biggest in terms of its monetary value. The monetary value is around Rs 15,000 crore. It originated from Chabahar port in Iran. The source of the drugs is Pakistan.” The mother ship was being deployed at various points at sea. Smaller boats would go from different countries and collect consignments from the main ships. The consignment was for Sri Lanka, Maldives and India. A Pakistani national has been arrested. We launched Operation Samudragupt in February 2022. As part of that operation, we have seized around 4,000 kg of various drugs.”
According to the NCB’s press release, “The inputs were shared with the Indian Navy and an Indian Navy ship was deployed in the vicinity. Based on this input, a large marine vessel was intercepted by the Navy.” 134 sacks of suspected methamphetamine were recovered from the ship and an Iranian national was also detained. The intercepted speedboat contained a man suspected to be a Pakistani national. Recovered sacks, Pakistani nationals, intercepted boat and mother ship Some other salvaged items were brought from Mattancherry Ghat, Cochin on 13/05/2023 and handed over to NCB for further action.”
“NCB has initiated the seizure process and the preliminary analysis is that all the packets contain methamphetamine. As the seizure process is still underway, the exact quantity of recovered methamphetamine is not yet clear. However, the number of packets recovered From this, we estimate it to be around 2500 kg in a conservative estimate,” it further read.
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