A boat carrying 232 kg of heroin with street value of $15m was seized and eight Pakistani crew were arrested in a joint intelligence-based operation by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard from international waters off the Gujarat coast on Monday (April 20).
On Tuesday, the crew were paraded with packets of the seized contraband aboard International Coast Guard vessel ‘Sangram’, which intercepted and apprehended the boat. The crew’s sophisticated satellite phones and GPS devices were also displayed.
Officials refused to say if the heroin was meant to be delivered to India. Deputy Inspector General S A Gupta from India’s Narcotics Control Bureau told journalists: “The initial investigations on the Indian coastguard ship ‘Sangram’ have led to recovery of 232 packets of narcotics suspected to be heroin.”
Additionally, a satellite communication set and global positioning system, which could have been used for trans-shipment of the contraband have also been apprehended.”
India’s Narcotics Control Bureau works with the Indian military to check drug infiltration. It claims that shipments like the one intercepted on Monday flow into India from Afghanistan via Pakistan.
India is particularly sensitive to suspected smuggling near the coast. In 2008, militants who reached shore from a trading ship, launched deadly attacks at several sites in Mumbai. In January, Indian forces intercepted a Pakistani fishing boat reportedly carrying explosives.
The narcotics bureau also said smugglers and militant organisations are linked.
“Pakistan … is involved in these types of activities for a very long time,” said Qamar Agha, a security expert. “It is working on a two-pronged strategy to bleed India; it is sending across the militants and it is also involved in drug-running and gun-running business.”
India’s proximity to drug production centres in Afghanistan and Pakistan heighten drug trafficking concerns. Experts say security agencies of the affected countries need to tackle the problem at the sources of cultivation, trafficking and use.
