According to official information received from NCB, a total of 2,525 kg of drugs have been confirmed to be seized and its value has been estimated at Rs 25,000 crore.
Kochi: Drugs worth Rs 25,000 crore seized by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Indian Navy in a special operation at sea on Saturday. According to NCB officials, the count of high quality methamphetamine seized by NCB and Indian Navy has been completed. According to official information received from NCB, the total seizure has been confirmed to be 2,525 kg and its value has been estimated at Rs 25,000 crore.
Officials further said that the calculation was completed in 23 hours. One of the officials said, “These prices have gone up because it is high-grade methamphetamine. The seized drugs were in 134 gunny bags. The methamphetamine was kept in one kilo packet.” A suspected Pakistani national has already been arrested in this regard. NCB officials told that he will be produced in the court this evening. On Saturday, the NCB seized around 2,500 kg of contraband drugs in Indian waters in a special operation.
Deputy Director General (Ops) Sanjay Kumar Singh said that this is the biggest consignment in terms of monetary value. Speaking to ANI, Singh said, “NCB and Navy conducted a successful operation in the Indian Ocean. This is the biggest consignment in terms of its monetary value. It originated from Chabahar port in Iran. The source is Pakistan. ” Singh further said that the consignment was meant for Sri Lanka, Maldives and India.
Along with this, he told, “The mother ship was being deployed at various points in the sea. From where small boats would go from different countries and collect consignments from the main ships. This consignment was for Sri Lanka, Maldives and India. In this case A Pakistani national has been arrested. He said that the operation was launched in February last year and as part of the operation, the team seized around 4,000 kg of various drugs.
Singh said, “We started Operation Samudragupt in February 2022, as part of that operation we have seized around 4,000 kg of various drugs.” The initial success of the operation named ‘Samudragupt’ was achieved in the month of February 2022 when a joint team of NCB and Indian Navy seized 529 kg of hashish, 221 kg of methamphetamine and 13 kg of heroin in the deep sea off the coast. All these have been imported from Gujarat, Balochistan and Afghanistan.
The seizure part of ‘Operation Samudragupt’ targeted maritime smuggling of drugs coming from Afghanistan. Recognizing the threat to national security posed by seaborne smuggling of heroin and other drugs in the Indian Ocean Region, the Director General, NCB launched Operation Samudragupt, headed by Sanjay Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Operations), NCB and consisting of officers were involved.
The primary objective of the operation was to collect actionable inputs leading to the interception of vessels carrying narcotics. For this task, the team interacted and collected information from drug law enforcement agencies like DRI, ATS Gujarat and intelligence agencies like Intelligence Wing of Indian Navy, NTRO etc.
