At least six Pakistani nationals on a boat carrying drugs worth around Rs 480 crore were arrested near Gujarat’s Porbandar, officials said on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip-off, officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Indian Coast Guard and Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) caught the Pakistani nationals when they were trying to enter the Indian territory on Monday night.
According to Gujarat ATS, the six men were trying to smuggle banned drugs to Delhi and Punjab using an Indian boat.
This is the second big drugs consignment seized off Gujarat’s coast in the last 30 days.
On February 28, at least 3,300 kg of drugs from a boat manned by suspected Pakistani crew members was seized off the coast of Gujarat. The international market value of these drugs was more than Rs 2,000 crore.
The Indian Coast Guard had previously recovered drugs worth crores of rupees in several operations at sea.
According to the statement released by NCB, in an overnight joint operation on March 11 and 12, the Indian Coast Guard, apprehended a Pakistani Boat with six crew onboard and around 80 kilograms of drugs worth approximately Rs 480 crore.
“The boat was apprehended about 350 kilometres from Porbandar into the Arabian Sea in a sea-air coordinated operation involving ICG ships and Dornier aircraft. The operation exhibited well-coordinated efforts between ICG, NCB and ATS Gujrat. This is the tenth apprehension by ICG, jointly with ATS Gujarat and NCB, in last three years, amounting to 517 kg narcotics worth Rs 3,135 crore,” NCB said in its statement.
