KOCHI: In what may be the biggest ever drug haul in the country, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Navy have seized 2,500 kg of high-purity methamphetamine worth `15,000 crore from a ship off the Kerala coast, the anti-drug agency said on Saturday. A Pakistani national has been detained in connection with it.
Speaking to reporters about the joint operation with the Navy in Kochi on Saturday, NCB deputy director general (operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh termed it the largest methamphetamine seizure in India.
The NCB launched Operation Samudragupt in January 2022 following intelligence inputs on maritime trafficking of heroin and other drugs over the maritime route in the Indian Ocean region. So far, the NCB has seized 3,200 kg methamphetamine, 500 kg heroin and 529 kg hashish.
The drug was sourced from Death Crescent, a region comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. The NCB got information on the movement of a mothership carrying a huge quantity of meth from the Makran coast bordering Pakistan and Iran.
The Navy identified the route the vessel would take to distribute the contraband. Subsequently, it intercepted the vessel and seized 134 sacks of meth. A speedboat was seized from the mothership.
EVIDENCE OF PAK HAND
Sources said evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in drug trafficking was clear as the sacks used to pack the contraband had the seals of Pakistani brands of rice and other food products