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Gazi Abbas Shahid
Starting as a ground reporter back in his home UT of Jammu and Kashmir, Gazi has been a part of the news industry for well over a decade. While he finds every type of news engrossing, politics, partic ... Read More
In a major drug bust, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Gujarat Police and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized 86 kilos of narcotics worth a whopping Rs 602 crore from 14 Pakistani citizens off the Gujarat coast.
According to officials, the ATS and NCB had launched a joint operation following intelligence inputs, adding that the Pakistani nationals tried to escape the spot and even tried to run over ATS officers with their boat who opened retaliatory fire and arrested the suspects.
Around 86 KG contraband drugs worth Rs 602 crore were seized from the possession of the Pakistani nationals, they said, adding that the operation was being carried out by the agencies based on intelligence inputs for the last few days.
In an official release, the Indian Coast Guard said the “breathtaking” overnight operation was carried out on April 28.
“The operation is an epitome of inter-agency coordination wherein Indian Coast Guard (ICG)Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) collaborated seamlessly which culminated in the successful operation,” it said, adding that approximately 86 kg of narcotics worth Rs 600 crore has been seized along with 14 Pakistani nationals from the Pakistani boat.
The ships and aircraft of Indian Coast Guard were deployed on concurrent missions to effect the operation, the release said.
“ICG ship Rajratan, which had NCB and ATS officials onboard, positively identified the suspect boat and no amount of evasive manoeuvring tactics employed by the drug laden boat could save it.”
The ship’s specialist team embarked the suspect boat and after thorough checks, confirmed the presence of the sizeable amount narcotics.
As per the release the Pakistani boat, along with its arrested crew, is being brought to Porbandar for further investigation.
Anti #Narco #Operations @IndiaCoastGuard Ship Rajratan with #ATS #Gujarat & #NCB @narcoticsbureau in an overnight sea – air coordinated joint ops apprehends #Pakistani boat in Arabian Sea, West of #Porbandar with 14 Pak crew & @86 Kg contraband worth approx ₹ 600Cr in… pic.twitter.com/N49LfrYLzz
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) April 28, 2024
A video of the thrilling operation was shared by the Indian Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, in related news, 13 people have been arrested, and mephedrone valued at Rs 230 crore seized, during raids by ATS sleuths at drug manufacturing units in Gujarat and neighbouring Rajasthan.
An official said raids at four drug manufacturing units, were conducted in a another joint operation by the Gujarat ATS and the NCB on Friday after the ATS received a tip-off that Ahmedabad resident Manoharlal Enani and Kuldeepsinh Rajpurohit of Rajasthan had set up mephedrone manufacturing units, an official said on Saturday.
A watch was kept on the movements of Enani and Rajpurohit as well as their accomplices, following which the raids were conducted at the units in Sirohi and Jodhpur in Rajasthan and Piplaj village in Gandhinagar and Bhaktinagar industrial area of Amreli district in Gujarat, an ATS release said.
“The ATS recovered 22.028 kilograms of mephedrone (in solid form) and 124 kilograms of liquid mephedrone, collectively valued at Rs 230 crore. Rajpurohit was nabbed during the raid in Gandhinagar and Enani was held from Sirohi,” it said.
As per the probe, Enani was in jail for seven years after he was nabbed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in 2015 for his involvement in the production of mephedrone at an industrial unit in Rajasthan.
All the accused were inter-connected and procuring the raw material from a company at Vapi industrial area in Valsad district, the release said.
“Investigations are on to find out since when they have been producing the drug, whether they sold it in the past and who else was part of the entire cartel,” it said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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