The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Tuesday seized over 75 kg of heroin worth Rs 376 crore from a container at Mundra port in Kutch district. Police said the container landed at the port about two months ago from the UAE and was supposed to be shipped to Punjab.
ATS officials said that they had received a tip-off that "a suspected container was lying at Mundra port for over two months" at Container Freight Station. After locating the container, the police found 4000 kg of cloth which were wrapped in 450 rolls.
While checking the rolls, they discovered 64 rolls where high-quality heroin was concealed and wrapped in carbon blue cello tape to avoid getting caught during x-ray screening. After hours of labour, the ATS officials extracted a total of 75.3 kg of what was confirmed to be high-grade heroin. Punjab police was also involved in the operation.
Director General of Police, Ashish Bhatia, said the consignment was exported by Green Forest General Tradition located at Ajman Free Zone in UAE. From Mundra port, the consignment was to be smuggled to Punjab. He also said while an investigation is on to find out others, a delivery agent working with a West Bengal firm's Gandhidham branch in Kutch has been identified.
According to ATS, this is the second case of smuggling where the consignment was left at the port or at freight stations. "Prima facie, it seems that the smugglers wait to take out the consignment to avoid getting caught. But, we can't say anything for sure as we are still investigating," Deputy Superintendent of Police, B P Rozia told DH. Roziya is one of the officers who is probing the case and has been instrumental in busting various smuggling attempts at ports as well as by sea route by smugglers mostly from Pakistan.
Since 2020, the ATS alone has seized over 1000 kg of heroin worth over Rs 5,000 crore in different operations and arrested over 65 people. The list includes 28 Pakistani, seven Iranian and three Afghan nationals. This is above the operation conducted by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which recovered a staggering 3,000 kg heroin worth over Rs 20,000 crore last year.