In a joint operation, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have recovered 90 kg of heroin worth Rs 450 crore from a shipping container that arrived at the Pipavav port in Amreli district from Iran, the state DGP said on Friday.
To dodge the authorities, the drug syndicate had applied a unique modus operandi in which threads were soaked in a solution containing heroin, which were then dried, made into bales and packed in bags for export, said Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia.
“The container, having large bags of threads, arrived at the Pipavav port from Iran nearly five months back. A forensic analysis of four suspicious bags having threads weighing nearly 395 kg revealed that the threads contained opiate derivative or heroin. In all, we found nearly 90 kg of heroin worth Rs 450 crore from those threads,” Bhatia told reporters in Gandhinagar.
In a release, the DRI said these bags having heroin-soaked threads were shipped along with other bags having bales of normal threads to avoid detection by the authorities.
“The modus operandi in this case would have required the extraction of heroin mixed in the threads. Examination and seizure proceedings by the DRI under the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985 are underway,” said the release.
This comes just months after the record seizure of 3,000 kg heroin from a consignment of talc in September 2021 at Mundra Port and 205 kg of heroin from a container containing Gypsum in April 2022 at Kandla Port.
Recently, nine Pakistani nationals were also arrested by Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in a joint operation with the Indian Coast Guard while trying to smuggle heroin worth Rs 280 crore on the Indian side. The Pakistani boat ‘Al Haj’ was carrying about 56 kg of heroin.
