Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), in a joint operation, recovered 40 kg heroin worth nearly Rs 200 crore, hidden in gearboxes, from a freight station at Kolkata port. The agencies said that the consignment had been imported from Dubai declared as scrap.
ATS officials said the consignment was imported in February, and was lying at the freight station since then, as no one appeared to claim it. Based on the information they received, they said they raided the Century Freight Station at Kolkata port, and recovered the consignment under “Operation Gear Box”.
DRI officials, in a statement, said that the consignment, declared as Heavy Melting Scrap, was imported from Dubai’s Jebel Ali port. The container had metallic scrap and machine parts such as gearboxes. The team of ATS and DRI dismantled the gear boxes and found 72 packets containing 39.5 kg heroin powder valued nearly Rs 200 crore in the international market.
“The total weight of the scrap was 7,220 kg in which there were 6 gear boxes and 12 of them had white marks. The heroin packets were recovered from these marked gear boxes,” Gujarat’s Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia, told reporters while sharing the details of the seizure.
DRI officials said the container, declared to be containing heavy melting scrap weighing 9,300 kg, arrived from Jebel Ali port in Dubai. The bill of entry was not filed for the container, they said. According to a statement released by DRI, this could be a “unique modus operandi to conceal heroin” as the drug syndicates were using "novel modus operandi every time.” It mentioned how the agency recovered 75 kg heroin hidden in threads of 395 kg of yarn at Kandla port earlier this year.
According to investigating officials, this fresh case seemed to be part of the same syndicate of international drug mafia that was smuggling narcotics, originating largely from Afghanistan, to India via different ports including Mundra and Kandla in Gujarat.
“Although there is no conclusive evidence, the modus operandi looks similar to that of several cases unearthed here in Gujarat,” an ATS officer said.
In the recent past, Gujarat ATS has helped the Narcotics Control Bureau, DRI, Punjab and Delhi police in recovering large quantities of heroin. This year alone, in eight such operations, a record 1,288 kg narcotic substances, mostly heroin, worth Rs 6,440 crore have been seized.
The recovery of large quantities of drugs at Mundra and Kandla ports in the state over the past several years have put the spotlight on Gujarat police and the government. Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have been questioning the state government over such frequent seizures. Recently, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed Gujarat as a “hub of narcotics smuggling which is ruining the lives of youth.”