In what is being touted as the single largest drug haul till date, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Saturday intercepted and apprehended a merchant vessel carrying around 1,500 kg of heroin valued at around Rs 3,500 crore off the coast of Gujarat near Porbandar, a Defence spokesperson said on Sunday.
The boat was brought to Porbandar on Sunday, where officials said the elaborate operation was anchored by ICG ship 'Samudra Pavak' and Indian Navy's 'Ankit'.
Post operation, the investigation is being jointly conducted by the ICG, Intelligence Bureau, Police, Customs and the Indian Navy. Eight persons, all Indians, who were on the vessel, have been taken into custody.
According to reliable sources, the Panama-registered vessel, 'MV Hennry,' was coming from Iran and headed to Alang ship breaking yard in Bhavnagar, where the consignment, which was loaded from near Pakistan, was to be offloaded.
Defence PRO Abhishek Matiman said, "Coastal surveillance was amplified three days ago, on July 27, following intelligence inputs. The vessel was intercepted at around 12 pm on Saturday. This is the largest single haul of narcotics seized by the ICG till date."
He said that a conversation apprehended indicated that the plan was to smuggle heroin through Alang, from where it was to be transported in smaller portions to Mumbai and Jaipur.
While Mumbai serves as the transit point for the southern markets of Bengaluru and Hyderabad, it's Jaipur for Delhi and surrounding markets.
"Two teams of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Ahmedabad, have gone to Porbandar to join the investigation. In fact, one of the teams left as soon as we got the information about the seizure on Saturday. We are investigating whether there were local players involved and why they were bringing the drugs to Alang," said Hari Om Gandhi, Zonal Director of NCB.
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