Suspected Pak national in custody after drugs valued at Rs 12K cr seized

In a major haul, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday said it has seized around 2,500 kg high purity methamphetamine valued at Rs 12,000 crore in the Indian water, and detained a suspected Pakistani national in this connection.

It was a joint operation between the Indian Navy and the NCB officials.

According to the NCB, the Indian authorities were on alert after receiving a tip-off, and based on that input, a vessel was identified and was intercepted by the Indian Navy.

The suspected Pakistani national was nabbed after intercepting a "mother ship" transporting drugs, as part of "Operation Samudragupt" which aims to combat maritime trafficking of drugs originating from Afghanistan.

This marks the third significant seizure by the NCB in the past 18 months regarding the trafficking of drugs through the southern route.

According to NCB, in view of the threat to national security emanating from maritime trafficking of heroin and other drugs over the maritime route in the Indian Ocean region, Director General, NCB had launched Operation Samudragupt headed by Sanjay Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Ops) in January, 2022.

An official said that continuous intelligence collection and analysis resulted in identification of a highly probable route that the mother ship would take for distribution of contraband.

The information was shared with the Indian Navy and an Indian Naval Ship was deployed in the vicinity. Based on this input, a large sea going vessel was intercepted by the Navy.

"A total of 134 sacks of suspected methamphetamine was recovered from the ship and one person is suspected to be a Pakistani national was detained, who was on a speed boat and contraband was loaded on it," said the official.

The recovered sacks, the Pakistani national, along with the speed boat and some other items salvaged from the "mother ship" were brought to Mattancherry Wharf, Kochi, and handed over to NCB for further action.