Kochi: In a massive drug bust, around 2,500 kg 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), Anti-Drug the agency said on Saturday. The NCB said that this was the biggest seizure of methamphetamine in the country and a Pakistani national has been detained in this connection.
Giving details of the seizure at a press conference held here, NCB Deputy Director General (Operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh said it was done as part of ‘Operation Samudragupt’, targeting maritime drug smuggling coming from Afghanistan. it was done.
The agency said this is the third major seizure of drug smuggling through the southern route by the NCB in the last one-and-a-half years. About 3,200 kg of methamphetamine, 500 kg of heroin and 529 kg of hashish have been seized so far under the operation.
The first seizure in the operation was made in February 2022 when a joint team of NCB and Indian Navy seized 529 kg of hashish, 221 kg of methamphetamine and 13 kg of heroin from the deep sea off the coast of Gujarat, sourced from Balochistan ( an area in Pakistan) and Afghanistan, the agency said.
Subsequently, in October 2022, in a joint operation by the NCB and the Indian Navy, an Iranian boat was intercepted off the coast of Kerala and a total of 200 kg of high-grade heroin, also brought from Afghanistan, was seized and six Iranian The drug smugglers were arrested. , it said.
Subsequently, real-time sharing of actionable information generated during the operation with Sri Lanka and Maldives led to the seizure of hundreds of kilograms of heroin and methamphetamine and the arrest of 19 drug traffickers in two operations by the Sri Lankan Navy in December . 2022 and April 2023, the agency said.
The agency claimed that the latest consignment of around 2,500 kg of methamphetamine was from Afghanistan to India, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
It has been said that the drug cache started on a “mother ship” – a large ship that distributes narcotics to various boats during its journey – off the Makran Coast around Pakistan and Iran.
It added that 134 sacks of suspected methamphetamine, the captured boat and some other items salvaged from the ship along with the Pakistani national were brought to Mattancherry jetty and handed over to the NCB by the Navy.
“NCB has initiated the seizure process and preliminary analysis is that all the packets contain high purity methamphetamine,” the NCB said.
The Indian Navy also tweeted about the seizure.
In a successful operation at sea, #Indian Navy Around 2500 kg of contraband seized in association with Narcotics Control Bureau
Prohibited material being handed over to law enforcement agencies#maritime security@DefenceMinIndia @narcoticsbureau @SpokespersonMoD @PIBHomeAffairs pic.twitter.com/nlhxXWQBmR— spokespersonnavy (@indiannavy) May 13, 2023