Cocaine worth Rs 800 crore recovered off Kutch coast in Gujarat

Gandhidham, September 28

The police on Thursday recovered 80 kg of cocaine, worth nearly Rs 800 crore, dumped on the shore of a creek near the Gandhidham town of Gujarat’s Kutch district, an official said.

The banned drug was found in 80 packets, each weighing a kilo, the police said. It was perhaps left behind by smugglers to avoid getting caught as the police were already active in the region, said Sagar Bagmar, superintendent of police, Kutch-East division.

The packets containing cocaine, a powerful central nervous system stimulant drug, were found abandoned on the shore of a creek passing from Mithi Rohar village near Gandhidham town, said Bagmar.

“Based on a tip-off about the delivery of a drug consignment, we were already active in this region. During our combing operation, we recovered 80 packets of cocaine, each weighing 1 kilogram, and worth Rs 800 crore, from the shore of the creek. It is possible that the smugglers might have dumped the contraband here out of fear of getting caught,” said the SP.

The Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies have been recovering packets containing heroin and cocaine at regular intervals from the coast near Jakhau, which is close to Pakistan, for the last two years.

Investigations had established in the past that such packets washed ashore after they were dumped in the sea by smugglers to avoid getting caught.

According to Bagmar, the packets recovered on Thursday from the creek near Gandhidham were not related to those found earlier.

“These packets are relatively fresh. They appear to be recently packed. We firmly believe that they are part of a consignment that we had been tracking after getting a tip-off recently,” said Bagmar.