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Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Director General (DG) S N Pradhan on Sunday lauded the joint operation in which around 800 kg of drugs worth Rs 2,000 crore was seized from a vessel in the Arabian Sea off the Gujarat coast. It was a first-of-its-kind operation conducted by the NCB in association with the Indian Navy.
In an exclusive interview with OTV, Pradhan said the seizure includes over 529 kg of very high-quality hashish (charas), more than 234 kg of crystal methamphetamine and around 15 kgs of heroin.
“It was purely an intelligence based operation which was being planned for the past one month. Before execution, we wanted to make sure that the location in deep sea was dead accurate. Following this, we coordinated and launched the joint operation with the Navy,” said Pradhan.
Sources said two large boats carrying the huge quantity of drugs were en route to India from the Arabian Sea. After seeing the teams, the smugglers managed to escape by moving out of the Indian territory by abandoning one boat.
According to Pradhan, a lot of planning and coordination was done to achieve success in the operation.
Sources said that some inputs have been received regarding the source of the drugs as the packets contained some inscription in ‘Urdu’. The NCB is investigating its delivery contacts.
“We have found some inputs regarding the involvement of neighbouring country. It is always been their modus operandi to harm India and damage the youths by drugs which is as part of a conspiracy,” Pradhan added.
The senior NCB officials said that the seized narcotics have been brought to the Porbandar port in Gujarat and the agency is conducting further formalities and probe.
