The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday said it has seized 205.6 kg heroin worth ₹ 1,439 crore from a container near Kandla port in Gujarat and arrested an importer from Punjab in this connection following an extensive search operation, news agency PTI reported.
The contraband, as per senior police official, was recovered from one of the 17 containers which had arrived at the Kandla port from Iran between September and October last year.
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad, earlier on April 21, had announced that the DRI in a joint operation with the ATS seized over 200 kg of heroin worth ₹ 1,300 crore after conducting a raid at a container station near Kandla port in Kutch district of the state.
The DRI, in a release on Monday, said: “Based on intelligence developed jointly with officers of the Gujarat ATS, officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence are currently examining a consignment, imported by an Uttarakhand-based firm at Kandla port.”
According to the DRI’s release, the consignment arrived at the Kandla port from the Bandar Abbas port, Iran. The consignment, imported in 17 containers having 10,318 bags, had a gross weight of 394 metric tonnes and was declared as “gypsum powder”, the release said.
“So far, 205.6 kg of heroin, valued at ₹ 1,439 crore in the illicit market, has been recovered. A detailed examination of the consignment is still going on at the port,” the DRI said.
“The importer was not found at the registered address in Uttarakhand. Accordingly, a manhunt was launched across the country to nab the importer,” the DRI said, without revealing the identity of importer.
To locate the importer, who was changing locations and hiding to evade identification, the DRI conducted searches at various places across India.
The importer was eventually held from a small village in Punjab under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The DRI release said that he had tried to resist and flee, but he was nabbed by the DRI officers.
The release also stated that the DRI acquired his transit remand from a special court in Amritsar on Sunday. He will be produced before a jurisdictional court in Bhuj town of Kutch on Monday.
Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia, reacting to the development, said the 17 containers had arrived at the Kandla port from Iran between September and October last year and were under the scanner since then.
“Though the containers were searched back then also, nothing suspicious was found by the authorities. Later, based on a specific input by the ATS that one container carried the contraband, the DRI, with the help of forensic experts, recovered 205.6 kg of heroin from that container,” Mr Bhatia said, PTI reported.
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