Another drug bust off Gujarat coast: 60 kg of narcotics worth Rs 420 crore seized from Pakistani boat, 6 held

Ahmedabad: A joint operation carried out by the Indian Coast Guard, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), and the Gujarat ATS on Tuesday led to the arrest of six Pakistani nationals and the recovery of 60 kg of methamphetamine worth about Rs 420 crore in the international market from International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) off Porbandar coast.

Superintendent of Police, ATS, Sunil Joshi said in a press conference that the agency had specific information about a drug consignment from Pakistan that was to be handed over to Indian handlers on IMBL. The consignment was to be smuggled to Punjab via the Gujarat coast and Delhi.

He said that a team comprising ATS, NCB, Delhi and Coast Guard personnel intercepted the suspicious boat near IMBL, about 185 nautical miles off Porbandar coast and found six Pakistani crew members in a fishing vessel. From their possession, 60 packets of narcotics, weighing about one kg each, were recovered.

"Prima facie, the packets look like methamphetamine (meth) but it is being examined. The total value of the drug could be upto Rs 420 crore," he said.

This is the third case where a large quantity of meth, a highly addictive drug, has been seized while being smuggled from Pakistan.

Last month, on February 26, five Iranian nationals were apprehended off the Porbandar coast with 3,300 kg of narcotics, including charas. Joshi told DH that even in this consignment there was about 160 kg meth. Last year, for the first time, the Gujarat ATS seized 61 kg of meth from the possession of five Pakistanis and one Iranian crew member of a fishing vessel.

These consignments are reported to have been smuggled from Afghanistan, said to be one of the major producers of opium and heroin in the world. Last year, a report titled 'Understanding Illegal Methamphetamine Manufacture in Afghanistan', by the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), highlighted an unprecedented surge in the production of meth, posing a threat to regional health and security.

The report said that the annual seizure of meth in 2019, which was less than 100 kg within Afghanistan, rose to a staggering 2,700 kg in 2021. The report held significance for India in view of the large quantities of meth, suspected to have originated from Afghanistan, that have been seized of late.

In May last year, the NCB and the Indian Navy seized 2,500 kg of meth, valued around Rs 15,000 crore, off the Kerala coast. It was the biggest seizure of the drug in the country.