Cocaine worth Rs 1,150 crore seized off Gujarat coast, 3 foreigners held

Ahmedabad: In a major drug haul, the Gujarat ATS and the Indian Coast Guard seized 115 kg of cocaine valued at nearly Rs 1,150 crore from a vessel off Mundra port and apprehended three foreign nationals, officials said on Wednesday.

The operation was carried out on the intervening night of May 25 and 26, following specific intelligence inputs shared by ATS Gujarat about narcotics smuggling through the maritime route, an official release said.

ICG interceptor boats carrying ATS personnel launched an extensive search operation in the Mundra anchorage area, where suspicious activity was noticed onboard a container vessel identified as MV Europe, anchored around five nautical miles off Mundra, it said.

According to one of the accused, the contraband was loaded onto the vessel in Brazil and hidden in its motor room in November last year without the knowledge of other crew members, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) said.

While a Tanzanian national named Juma Nasir Omar was arrested from the boat, the Gujarat ATS, with help from Delhi police, apprehended from the national capital's Dwarka area two other foreign nationals who were supposed to take the delivery, DGP Rao said.

A court remanded Juma Nasir Omar in the custody of the ATS for five days. The other two accused -- Kelvin Chukwuama, a Nigerian, and Bairunge James, a Ugandan national -- were brought to Ahmedabad from Delhi by the ATS and will be produced before a court on Thursday, an official said.

GPS devices, satellite communication equipment and AirTags were also seized from the consignment bags, indicating the contraband may have been electronically tracked during transit, officials said.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad and the Coast Guard jointly carried out the operation following specific intelligence inputs gathered by an ATS officer about a large consignment of cocaine being smuggled from Brazil via the sea route, Rao said.

ATS officers then rushed to Mundra on the night of May 25 and coordinated with the Coast Guard for a joint operation.

"In the early hours of May 26, the joint team intercepted the vessel 'Europe' at the outer anchorage and initiated a search operation," Rao said.

During the operation, the team learned that six bags containing narcotics had been concealed aboard the ship. As the Coast Guard vessel approached, two crew members on deck allegedly threw several heavy bags into the sea.

Officials said five floating bags were successfully recovered from the water despite poor visibility, while one bag could not be traced.

Preliminary testing of samples using a drug detection kit confirmed the substance to be cocaine, they said.

A total of around 115 packets weighing nearly 115 kg were recovered from the five bags, the officials said. The estimated value of the seized cocaine is around Rs 1,150 crore, calculated at roughly Rs 10 crore per kg in the international market, they said.

The ATS team also recovered four Apple AirTags from the seized bags, indicating the narcotics consignment may have been electronically tracked during transit, Rao said.

The two Tanzanians -- Jumanne and Omar -- were allegedly transporting the cocaine shipment, the DGP said.

The contraband was meant to be handed over at sea and delivered further to the Delhi-based Chukwuama and James.

During interrogation, Omar disclosed that the cocaine had been loaded onto the vessel in Brazil and concealed in the motor room in November 2025 without the knowledge of the other crew members, an ATS release said.

As to the consignment's final destination after Delhi and whether the drugs were intended for distribution within India or abroad, Rao said further details would emerge only after sustained interrogation of the accused.

Officials also recovered GPS and satellite communication devices concealed inside the boat's steering room.

A case was registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The operation also involved personnel of the Special Operations Group (SOG) in Kutch-Bhuj, Coastal Police, Marine Police and the Mundra Port Authority.

Officials described the seizure as a major success against international maritime drug smuggling and an example of close coordination between multiple security and enforcement agencies.

This was the 15th successful anti-narcotics operation jointly conducted by the ICG and ATS Gujarat in the last five years, they added.