Gujarat ATS seizes 120 kg of heroin worth Rs 600 crore in Morbi, 3 arrested
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) recovered over 100 kg of heroin worth crores from Zinzuda village.
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) recovered 120 kg of heroin worth Rs 600 crore from Zinzuda village in Morbi district and arrested three people.
“Preliminary investigation has revealed that the consignment of heroin was brought by Mukhtar Hussein and Ghulam Bhagad via the sea route after receiving the delivery from a Pakistani boat. This drug consignment was sent by Zahid Bashir Baloch, a resident of Pakistan, who is absconding in an earlier case pertaining to the seizure of 227 kg of heroin in 2019,” the Gujarat ATS said in a statement.
This consignment of heroin was to be handed over to the Indian smugglers to be transported to an African country, the Gujarat ATS said.
“Another achievement of Gujarat Police. Gujarat Police is leading from the front to eliminate the drugs. Gujarat ATS has nabbed around 120 kg of drugs,” said Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi.
Addressing a press conference, Himanshu Shukla, DIG Gujarat ATS, said, “The Gujarat ATS has seized drugs worth Rs 1,320 crore in the last one year. The drugs are entering India from countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, where a lot of production happens.”
The development comes months after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized around 3,000 kilograms of heroin worth around Rs 21,000 crore from Mundra port in Kutch in September.
The drug was found smuggled in two cargo containers declared as shipping semi-processed talc stones. The drugs were shipped from Afghanistan.
The seized heroin was exported by a Kandahar-based Hassan Hussain Limited and imported by Vijayawada-based Aashi Trading Company via Bandar Abbas Port, Iran, to Gujarat’s Mundra Port.
The DRI also arrested a Chennai-based couple, Machavaram Sudhakaran and Durga P V Govindaraju, in the case, which is now with the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The NIA FIR has named Machavaram Sudhakaran, Durga P V Govindaraju and Rajkumar P as accused among others. Sudhakaran and Govindaraju own the company that was shipping the contraband. Govindaraju is the proprietor of Aashi Trading Company, registered in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada, that was importing the talc.
