A Pakistani national, arrested by Kerala Police on May 13 in a major drug bust, will be produced in court on Monday. He was on the Kerala coast in a joint operation by the Indian Navy and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) wherein over 2,525 kg of high-purity methamphetamine drug worth Rs 25,000 crore was seized. According to a senior official, it is the largest drug bust in terms of its monetary value which is approximately Rs 15,000 crore. He said that the drug network originated from the Chabahar port in Iran and the source of the drugs is in Pakistan. The mother ship was being stationed at different points in the sea, he mentioned
The arrested Pakistani national will be today produced in court, news agency ANI reported.
Talking about the biggest drug haul, Deputy Director General OPS Sanjay Kumar Singh on Saturday said, “It is the largest in terms of its monetary value. The monetary value is approx Rs 15,000 crore. It originated from the Chabahar port in Iran. The source of the drugs is Pakistan. The mother ship was being stationed at different points in the sea. The smaller boats would go from various countries and collect consignments from the mother ships”, as quoted by ANI.
Singh further added that the consignment was meant for Sri Lanka, Maldives, and India. He also confirmed that one Pakistani national has been arrested so far.
Giving more details on the matter, Singh said the arrest and seizures have been made as part of “Operation Samudragupta” which was started in Feb 2022, PTI reported. He also added that the operation was launched to target the maritime trafficking of drugs originating from Afghanistan.
NCB's Operation Samudragupta
The NCB said that the drug cache had started on a "mother ship", which is a large vessel that distributes narcotics to various boats during its journey. The mother ship started from the Makran coast around Pakistan and Iran, reported news agency PTI.
The agency said this is the third major seizure by NCB of maritime trafficking of drugs through the southern route in the last one and a half years. Besides methamphetamine drugs, 500 kg of heroin and 529 kg of hashish has been seized so far under the operation.
The nodal agency also mentioned, "NCB has initiated the seizure procedures and the primary analysis is that all of the packets contain methamphetamine of high purity,” as quoted by PTI.
The first seizure under this operation was made in 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 from the high seas off the coast of Gujarat, all sourced from Baluchistan (a region in Pakistan) and Afghanistan, said the agency
Later on, an Iranian boat was intercepted off the coast of Kerala in a joint operation by NCB and Indian Navy in October 2022.
During that time too, a total of 200 kg of high-grade heroin, which was also sourced from Afghanistan, was seized and six Iranian drug traffickers were arrested, reported PTI.