JOIN USDRI nabs importer of Kandla heroin consignment
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday said that it has arrested a man from a village in Punjab in connection with the recovery of heroin consignment weighing 205 kg and valued at Rs1,439 crore in the illicit international market.
The content of the consignment, which was lying at a private container freight station close to Kandla port in Kutch since October 25, 2021, was found out by Gujarat ATS which shared its information with the DRI resulting in the seizure.
DRI sources said that the importer of the goods Jobanjeet Singh, who runs Balaji Trading from Uttarakhand, was arrested from a village in Amritsar on Sunday after a manhunt launched across the country.
"DRI conducted searches at various locations across India to locate the importer (Singh). The importer was changing locations and hiding to evade identification," DRI stated in a note. Singh was produced before the court of special duty magistrate who granted transit remand to produce him before the jurisdictional court in Bhuj, Kutch district.
Officials said that the consignment, which arrived at Kandla port from Bandar Abbas port in Iran, has 17 containers in which there are 10,318 bags weighing 394 metric tonnes. They had been declared as gypsum powder. "So far, 205.6 kg of heroin, valued at Rs 1,439 crores in the illicit market, has been recovered. The detailed examination of the consignment is still undergoing at the port," said the note.
Sources said that so far 205 kg heroin has been recovered from only two containers and the quantity of the seizure is likely to increase exponentially after examination of 15 other containers. What is worrying the security agencies is the fact that consignment of such scale passed through the port undetected and remained lying at the private container freight station.
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