56 kg of cocaine worth ₹500 crore seized from container near Gujarat’s Mundra port
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday recovered 52 kilogrammes of cocaine at Mundra Port in Gujarat. The consignment is estimated to be worth ₹500 crore in the international drug market.
According to DRI statement, an intelligence input was received about certain consignments imported from Iran were likely to contain narcotic drugs. The DRI launched ‘Operation Namkeen’ and a consignment declared to containing 1,000 bags of common salt imported from Iran was identified for probe, the DRI said in a statement.
After a three-day long investigation from May 24 to 26, some bags were found to be suspicious as a substance having distinct smell was found from them. The officials of Directorate of Forensic Sciences conducted the tests and reported the presence of cocaine in these samples.
The DRI is investigating the roles of people involved in the drug consignment. In the previous financial year, the agency had seized 321 kgs of cocaine worth ₹3,200 crore during its anti-drug crackdown across the country.
In the last one month, the DRI recovered 205 kgs of heroin from a commercial import consignment of gypsum powder at the Kandla port, 395 kgs of thread laced with heroin at Pipapav port, 62 kgs of heroin at the Air Cargo complex of Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, and 218 kgs of heroin off the coast of Lakshadweep, the agency said.
The ₹500 crore cocaine seizure at Mundra port comes eight months after 3,000 kgs of Afghan heroin worth ₹21,000 crore was seized at Mundra Port in September last year. The National Investigation Agency had filed a chargesheet against 16 people, saying that the huge quantity of Afghan drug was smuggled to India at the behest of Pakistan-based terrorist outfits.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a chargesheet against 16 persons in the ₹21,000 crore Mundra drug haul case, saying the huge quantity of Afghan heroin seized was being smuggled to India at the behest of Pakistan-based terror outfits so that the money generated through it could be used for anti-India activities.