Gujarat ATS nabs eight Pakistan nationals with 30 kg heroin in mid-sea operation

Gujarat police's Anti-terrorism squad (ATS) on Thursday arrested eight suspected Pakistani nationals and seized 30 kg heroin consignment worth Rs 150 crore from their possession kept in a fishing boat, following a joint operation with local police and Indian Coast Guard off Jakhau coast in Kutch district.

This is the fourth major case of attempted smuggling from Pakistan through Gujarat seacoast that the ATS has foiled. In another case, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had also busted a similar attempt.

ATS officials said that the operation was carried out based on an input that a Pakistani boat "Nooh" was carrying a consignment of heroin off Jakhau coast, about 40 nautical miles from the coast. They said that the consignment was supposed to be offloaded near a creek and sent to Punjab.

Based on the specific input, a team of ATS officials led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhavesh Rojiya, officers of Special Operation Group, Dwarka district and Coast Guard officials launched a search operation last night in the sea and apprehended the suspected boat. They found eight Pakistani crew and recovered 30 kg of heroin from their possession.

"The consignment was to be delivered to someone in Punjab. We are investigating the case. We are seeing that Gujarat coast is becoming a new channel for smugglers from the neighbouring country which we have been able to bust everytime they attempt," Deputy Inspector General, ATS, Himanshu Shukla told DH. As a matter of fact, in the past four years, this is the fourth such operation in which the narcotics consignment has been caught.

It started in 2018, when ATS recovered 5 kg heroin in Kutch and further investigation led to tracing of 300 kg heroin in Punjab which was smuggled through the same channel. In 2019, ATS arrested nine Iranian nationals with 100 kg heroin. In 2020, the ATS apprehended five Pakistani nationals and seized 35 kg heroin consignment worth Rs175 crore from a fishing boat in a joint operation in mid sea. Besides, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had also caught 218 kg of heroin from Jakhau port which was being smuggled by a crew of six Pakistani nationals in a fishing boat in 2019.

ATS officials said that due to the ban of trade from Line of Control (LoC) and heightened surveillance by Combined Task Force or CTF 150, a combined force of US and Australian among other nations, the smugglers have been using Gujarat's coast as a safe passage. In most cases, the contraband was supposed to be dispatched from Gujarat coast to Punjab and from there to other parts of the country and even abroad.