Drugs, arms on boat: 10 Pak nationals sent to Gujarat ATS custody for 12 days

Ten Pakistani nationals who were held with a large quantity of drugs worth Rs 280 crore and a cache of arms mid-sea on December 26 were remanded in 12-day custody of the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) by a court on Thursday.

Based on intelligence shared by the ATS, the Indian Coast Guard had intercepted a Pakistani boat with 10 people in the Arabian Sea off the Gujarat coast in the early hours of Monday. The Coast Guard recovered 40 kg of heroin, six Italy-made pistols, 12 magazines and 120 cartridges from the boat named Al Soheli.

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Citing a preliminary probe by the ATS, officials said the firearms and the drugs were supposed to land on the coast between Salaya and Okha in the Devbhumi Dwarka district.

The boat had set sail from Gwadar port in Balochistan near Karachi. In the early hours of Thursday, a court in Okha gave the custody of the 10 Pakistani nationals to the ATS. The agency then brought them to its headquarters in Ahmedabad in the afternoon. The ATS will now try to find out about the intended receivers of the seized drugs and weapons and their ultimate destination, the agency said in a release. As per the preliminary investigation, the narcotics were sent by a Pakistan-based drug lord, identified as Haji Salim Baloch, said ATS.