In a joint operation, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Monday apprehended six Pakistani nationals with 77 kg heroin consignment worth Rs 400 crore from their fishing boat in a mid sea operation off Jakhau coast in Kutch district.
ATS officials said that the consignment was supposed to land at Gujarat port and smuggled further to Punjab for local consumption. "There are handlers based in Rajasthan and Punjab who are behind this. We have identified their local pointsmen, who were to collect the consignment," officials said.
A statement issued by ICG stated that six crew members of Pakistani fishing boat "Al Hussaini" were apprehended in Indian waters and 77 kgs of heroin worth Rs 400 crore were recovered from the boat. It said that ICG "ship sighted the suspiciously moving boat, which on being challenged, tried to flee, that was outmaneuvered. Ship displaying prompt agility forced them to surrender." The note added that the contraband was kept in five bags weighing 77 kg of heroin. It was the second joint operation in the last three months in which heroin worth Rs5,50 crore was confiscated.
ATS officials said that the conspiracy to smuggle the contraband was hatched by two Pakistani drug mafia identified as Haji Hasan and Haji Hasam. The crew members set sail from Karachi and after reaching 35 nautical miles off Jakhau port in Kutch tried to contact their handler in Gujarat through very high frequency (VHF) channel-71, to contact their local handlers from 35 nautical miles from the Jakhau coast. They were using code words, Hari-1 and Hari-2 to contact their handlers here.
The boat belongs to one Shahbaz Ali. The crew members have been identified as Md Imran Vagher, Ismail Badala, Md Sajid Vagher, Sagar Vagher, Md Danish Vagher, Ashfak Vagher, all residents of Karachi.
The fresh operation came barely a month after ATS had seized 120 kg narcotics worth Rs 600 crore in the international market smuggled from Pakistan, in Morbi and Dev Bhumi Dwarka districts. Before these two cases, DRI had seized a whopping 3000 kg of heroin worth over Rs 20,000 crore from Mundra port which had landed from Afghanistan. This case is being probed by the National Investigation Agency.
The ATS said in note that since August 2018, it has seized about 920 kg of drugs, worth Rs 4,600 crore in international markets and arrested Pakistani, Iranian and Afghan nationals along with their Indian handlers. The officials believe that "smuggling activities through the sea route has increased in the past several years primarily due to land border trade halt between Indian and Pakistan."
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