NCB officers stated it was carried out as a part of ‘Operation Samudragupt’
New Delhi:
In a large drug bust, practically 2,500 kilograms of methamphetamine value round Rs 12,000 crore was seized from a vessel in Indian waters alongside the Kerala coast in a joint operation by the Navy and the Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB), the anti-drug company stated on Saturday.
The NCB stated it was the biggest seizure of methamphetamine within the nation and a Pakistani nationwide has been detained in reference to it. Giving particulars of the seizure at a press convention held, NCB Deputy Director Normal (Ops) Sanjay Kumar Singh stated it was carried out as a part of ‘Operation Samudragupt’ which focused maritime trafficking of medicine originating from Afghanistan.
That is the third main seizure by NCB of maritime trafficking of medicine by way of the southern route within the final one and a half years, the company stated. As a part of the operation, to date round 3,200 kg of methamphetamine, 500 kg of heroin and 529 kg of cannabis has been seized, it stated.
The primary seizure within the operation was made in February 2022 when a joint staff of NCB and Indian Navy seized 529 kg of cannabis, 221 kg of methamphetamine and 13 kg of heroin from the excessive seas off the coast of Gujarat, all sourced from Baluchistan (a area in Pakistan) and Afghanistan, the company stated.
Subsequently, an Iranian boat was intercepted off the coast of Kerala in a joint operation by NCB and Indian Navy in October 2022 and a complete of 200 kg of high-grade heroin, additionally sourced from Afghanistan, was seized and 6 Iranian drug traffickers have been arrested, it stated.
Thereafter, sharing of real-time actionable info, generated in the course of the operation, with Sri Lanka and Maldives led to the seizure of lots of of kilograms of heroin and methamphetamine and arrest of 19 drug traffickers in two operations performed by the Sri Lankan Navy in December 2022 and April 2023, the company stated.
The company claimed that the newest consignment of round 2,500 kg of methamphetamine was meant for India, Sri Lanka and Maldives from Afghanistan.
The drug cache had began on a “mom ship” – a big vessel that distributes narcotics to varied boats throughout its journey – from the Makran coast round Pakistan and Iran, it stated.
As many as 134 sacks of suspected methamphetamine, the intercepted boat and another objects salvaged from the ship together with the Pakistani nationwide have been delivered to Mattancherry Wharf and handed over by the Navy to the NCB, it stated.
“NCB has initiated the seizure procedures and the first evaluation is that the entire packets comprise methamphetamine of excessive purity,” the NCB stated.
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