An official stated that police seized 80 kilogramme of cocaine, worth approximately Rs 800 crore, stashed on the edge of a stream near Gandhidham in Gujarat's Kutch district on Thursday, news agency PTI reported. According to authorities, the illegal narcotic was discovered in 80 packages, each weighing a kg. According to Sagar Bagmar, superintendent of police, Kutch-East division, it was possibly left behind by smugglers to escape detection because police was already active in the area.
"Today Gandhidham police seized 80 kgs of cocaine, which is worth about Rs 800 crore in the international market. I have congratulated the DGP and Gandhidham police for this success," Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi said.
The cocaine packets, a potent central nervous system stimulant narcotic, were discovered abandoned on the edge of a stream going through Mithi Rohar hamlet near Gandhidham town, according to Bagmar.
“Based on a tip-off about the delivery of a drug consignment, we were already active in this region. During our combing operation, we recovered 80 packets of cocaine, each weighing 1 kilogram, and worth Rs 800 crore, from the shore of the creek. It is possible that the smugglers might have dumped the contraband here out of fear of getting caught,” the SP was quoted by PTI in its report.
For the last two years, the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies have recovered packages carrying heroin and cocaine at regular intervals from the shore at Jakhau, which is close to Pakistan.
In the past, investigations revealed that such parcels washed ashore after being thrown in the water by smugglers to avoid capture.
According to Bagmar, the packages discovered Thursday in a stream near Gandhidham were unrelated to those discovered previously.
“These packets are relatively fresh. They appear to be recently packed. We firmly believe that they are part of a consignment that we had been tracking after getting a tip-off recently,” said Bagmar.
(With Inputs From Agencies)