120 kg heroin worth over Rs 600 crore seized in Gujarat; 3 held

The narcotics arrived from Pakistan and the main smuggler has been identified as Zahid Bashir Baloch who lives in Pakistan, ATS said

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday apprehended yet another consignment of heroin weighing 120 kg from Morbi district in a late-night operation and arrested three persons.

The value of the narcotics, reported to have links with Pakistan, is said to be over Rs 600 crore in the international market.

ATS officials claimed that the consignment was supposed to be smuggled to African nations but the arrested accused persons "decided to divert and misappropriate it" by selling drugs to various buyers in India.

The ATS officials arrested Mukhtar Hussain Jodiya alias Jabbar, a resident of Jodiya in Jamnagar, Ghulam Ummar Bhagad, a resident of Salaya in Devbhumi Dwarka and Shamsuddin Hussain Saiyed, a resident of Zinzuda village in Morbi district. Officials said that Jabbar and Bhagad had brought the consignment from their Pakistani handlers sometime in October from the International Maritime Border Line.

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"The consignment was kept hidden at Shamsuddin Hussain Saiyed's house at Zinzuda village which was raided last night and was recovered. The narcotics arrived from Pakistan and the main smuggler has been identified as Zahid Bashir Baloch who lives in Pakistan.

"His name had figured in 2019 during an investigation by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, which had caught a similar consignment of 227 kg. Baloch is wanted in that case," Ashish Bhatia, Director General of Police, told reporters after the operation at the ATS office.

Bhatia added that the conspiracy to smuggle narcotics was hatched in the UAE at a "Somalia canteen". He said that Pakistani smugglers and other accused in the case, who are yet to be arrested, were part of this conspiracy.

According to ATS, Bhagad and Jabbar have criminal antecedents.

"Jabbar is a notorious smuggler with close connections to various international cartels and had been apprehended by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency last year when he had docked his boat in Karachi, Pakistan citing ‘engine problems’ and then had been let off by the Pakistani agencies," A press note, issued by ATS, stated.

Officials said that Jabbar's brother, Isa Rav, was in contact with Pak smuggler Baloch and had allegedly exchanged the coordinates for the delivery of the narcotic drugs in the sea.

"As per their pre-decided communication, the delivery of drugs was done at 23:28:100 N and 67:40:100 E in the last week of October 2021. This narcotic consignment was initially hidden in the coastal region near Salaya and was subsequently moved to the location near the Dargah of Kotawala Pir in Zinzuda village of Maliya Miyana in Morbi district," the ATS officials stated.

According to ATS, the smugglers from Pakistan and Iran use their Indian counterparts to transport the drugs to their conduits.

"The Indian dhows are used for transporting drugs in the international waters as it would not cause suspicion to coast guards and navies of other countries. However, in the present case it has been revealed that the accused persons apprehended by Gujarat ATS had decided to divert and misappropriate the consignment intended for Africa to India and to sell the drugs to various buyers in India," the press note said.

The ATS has said that Pakistan-based drug cartels have been "constantly smuggling heroin in India through Gujarat coast" and "in the past few years there are continuous attempts by these cartels to use Gujarat coast due to its proximity to Pakistan as a landing point for heroin."

It said that the "most common modus-operandi of the Pakistani and Iranian heroin smugglers is to deliver the heroin to Indian counterparts at notional Indo-Pak International Maritime Boundary Line, which is supposed to be brought to the coast and further transported to the destination."

The officials added that "interrogations and investigation have revealed that various geopolitical reasons are responsible for this surge in number of attempts being made through Gujarat Coast."