NCB and Navy caught the largest ever drug smuggling consignment near Gujarat's coast

In a big achievement for the Narcotics Control Bureau, NCB, drugs worth thousands of crores have been caught off coast Gujarat's Porbandar. Lets know the whole story of this drug smuggling:

Navy and Narcotics

The Narcotics Control Bureau in a joint operation with Indian Navy and Gujarat Police achieved success in catching a drug consignment worth thousands of crores being smuggled into the country. This drug consignment was been smuggled into the country through the west coast of Bharat, from Gujarat's Porbandar coast in a dhow.

Five crew members on the boat were in charge of smuggling the drugs into Bharat. All these five people were foreigners who were carrying drugs weighing a massive 3,300kg in the dhow in the Arabian sea waters. According to reports, the dhow sailed from Iran.

Home Minister Amit Shah commented on the matter calling it a historic success and a testament of the "unwavering commitment to making our nation drug-free".

How was the operation carried out?

NCB deputy director general (operations) Gyaneshwar Singh gave the input that this operation was codenamed operation 'Sagarmanthan-1 and the Navy and the Narcotics team were working on the inputs for the past few weeks.

The unregistered fishing boat carrying drugs was intercepted by the Navy on Tuesday morning , 27 February 2024 at a distance of 60 nautical miles from the Indian coast and along the International Maritime Boundary Line(IMBL).

To intercept the boat, Indian Navy deployed a warship and helicopters with P8I long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft along with maritime commandos onboard.

What was caught?

The drug consignment weighted around 3,300kg which included 3,110 kgs of Charas or Hashish, 158.3 kgs of crystal Methamphetamine and 24.6 kgs of suspected heroin. The packets of these drugs carried the stamp of 'Ras Awad Goods co, produce of Pakistan'.

This is said to the biggest narcotics seizure in the country till date. The value of this seizure is said to be around Rs 1,300-Rs 2,000 crores in the International market as per information shared by NCB Director General S N Pradhan during a press conference in Delhi.

He further said "We have seen that drugs smuggling has increased through the maritime route over the last few years and hence we are jointly working with other government agencies like the Navy, Coast Guard, Customs etc. to intercept such activities. The smugglers and drugs operators use the Arabian Sea to exploit the Indian coastline that is vulnerable. It is part of the grand design to destabilise the country using drugs."

The last seizure was in 2023 when NCB caught drugs weighing 2,500kg from the coasts of Kerala.

How is Pakistan and Iran involved?

The source of the Drugs is found to be the Chabahar Port in Iran .Talking about the 5 crew members, the NCB DDG(operations) Gyaneshwar Singh said They could either be Pakistani or Iranians. However, we have recovered no IDs from them. A Thuraya satellite phone and four mobile phones have been seized from these men."

The officer also said that since Pakistan's food company's name was found on the packets, it is suspected that the country had a hand in the smuggling.

Drug smugglers and buyer

The drug is being smuggled into the country from the Arabian waters, is done with proper planning. The smugglers on board the boat in the waters are in touch of the buyers who give the order after which the traffickers smuggle drugs using the coastline upto the southernmost tip.

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