Heroin coated yarn: How traffickers smuggled ₹450 cr worth heroin into India


‘Heroin-coated yarn’: How traffickers smuggled â‚¹450 cr worth heroin into India

Gujarat DGP Ashish Bhatia said the container used to smuggle heroin had been lying in Gujarat’s Pipavav port for five months.

AHMEDABAD: Authorities have seized heroin-coated yarn, estimated to be worth â‚¹450 crore, from a container in Gujarat’s Pipavav port, in another major drug haul in the state, police said on Friday.

According to Gujarat director general of police (DGP) Ashish Bhatia, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) launched a joint operation after receiving inputs about the presence of narcotics at the port.

“The DRI and Gujarat ATS have seized 395 kg of yarn which contained around 80-90 kg of heroin derivative. It is estimated to cost â‚¹450 crore. The container was lying at Pipavav port for the past five months and acting on an intelligence jointly developed by DRI and ATS Gujarat, it was examined,” Bhatia said.

Giving details of the modus operandi, Bhatia said the traffickers soaked yarn in a solution containing heroin. They were then dried, made into bales and packed in bags. These bags were then shipped alongside bags containing bales of normal threads in an attempt to deceive the authorities, he said.

Apart from the record seizure of 3,000 kg heroin from a consignment of talc in September 2021 at Mundra Port and 205 kg of heroin from a container containing Gypsum in April 2022 at Kandla Port, DRI officers in two cases in February and March seized heroin from cargo containers at the container depot at Tughlakabad, New Delhi.

In the first case, 34.7 kg heroin was seized from four containers declared to contain rock salt. In the second case, 2.4 kg heroin was seized in the form of sediment from a consignment of Pomegranate juice.

Recently, nine Pakistani nationals were also arrested by Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in a joint operation with the Indian Coast Guard while trying to smuggle heroin worth â‚¹280 crore on the Indian side. The Pakistani boat ‘Al Haj’ was carrying about 56 kg of heroin.

Courtesy: Hindustan times


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