The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) along with Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Operations, Delhi, conducted a successful anti-narcotics operation at sea in the wee hours of April 26, seizing a Pakistani boat carrying approximately 86kg of heroin, estimated to be worth £60 mn, coast guard officers said.
The operation resulted in the arrest of 14 crew members, all from Balochistan in Pakistan.
Nasir Hussain, 62, the captain of the drugs-laden Pakistani boat “Al Raza”, was injured after a bullet hit his right bicep when a joint team of the three agencies fired at him. The firing was carried out after the accused allegedly tried to hit the small boat occupied by agencies’ officers, said a senior Gujarat police officer.
Later, Hussain was medically evacuated by an ICG ship, and was admitted to a hospital where he underwent a surgery to have the bullet removed from his body.
This is the second big operation against the illicit drug mafia within two days. Earlier, the Gujarat ATS and NCB jointly busted three mephedrone labs - at Piplaj on the outskirts of Gandhinagar, in Amreli and at Lotiwara in Sirohi districtof Rajasthan - and arrested 13 people. They also seized mephedrone with a street value of £23 mn.
The ICG ship with NCB and ATS officials on board identified the suspect boat despite its attempts to escape. The expert team on the ICG ship boarded the Pakistani boat and after a detailed search, confirmed the presence of a large quantity of narcotics, said a coast guard officer.
Gujarat DGP Vikas Sahay told the reporters that prima facie the drugs seem to be heroin packed in 78 packets.
All the crew members are from Balochistan in Pakistan and the heroin consignment was sent by a Pakistan based drug mafioso named Haji Aslam alias Babu Baloch.
ATS officers said that the drugs consignment was supposed to be received by a Tamil Nadu-based drug cartel and its destination was Sri Lanka.
