Operation Samudragupt: Narcotics Control Bureau, Navy seize Rs 15,000 crore drugs off Kochi coast

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 13

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Navy have seized around 2,700 kg of narcotics worth Rs 15,000 crore in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Kochi and apprehended a suspected Pakistani national.

The NCB called it the biggest-ever seizure of methamphetamine in the country as part of its “Operation Samudragupt”.

The NCB, in a statement, said the drug cache had started on a “mother ship” — a large vessel that distributes narcotics to several boats during its journey — from the Makran coast around Pakistan and Iran.

“In all, 134 sacks of suspected methamphetamine, a Pakistani national, the intercepted boat and some other items salvaged from the ship were brought to Mattancherry Wharf in Kochi, Kerala, and handed over by the Navy to the NCB,” it said.

“The NCB has initiated the seizure procedure. The primary analysis is that all packets contain methamphetamine of high purity,” the anti-drug agency said.

“As the seizure procedures are still underway, the exact quantity of methamphetamine recovered is not clear yet. However, from the number of packets seized, we estimate it to be around 2,700 kg,” the NCB said.

About 15 days ago, the NCB and the Navy had received a tip-off about the consignment passing through the Indian coastline.

The NCB, in the statement, also said Sri Lanka and Maldives also shared inputs with the Indian authorities that led to the current seizure.

This is the third major seizure by the NCB of maritime trafficking of drugs through the southern route in the past one-and-a-half years, the agency said.

The first seizure in the operation was made in February 2022 when a joint team of the NCB and the Navy seized 529 kg of hashish, 221 kg of methamphetamine and 13 kg of heroin from the high seas off the coast of Gujarat, all sourced from Baluchistan (a region in Pakistan) and Afghanistan, the agency said.

Subsequently, an Iranian boat was intercepted off the coast of Kerala in a joint operation by NCB and Indian Navy in October 2022 and a total of 200 kg of high-grade heroin, also sourced from Afghanistan, was seized and six Iranian drug traffickers were arrested, it said.

Thereafter, sharing of real-time actionable information, generated during the operation, with Sri Lanka and Maldives led to seizure of hundreds of kilograms of heroin and methamphetamine and arrest of 19 drug traffickers in two operations conducted by Sri Lankan Navy in December 2022 and April 2023, the agency said. PTI inputs

Iran connection

• The drug cache had started on a ‘mother ship’ — a large vessel that distributes narcotics to various boats during its journey — from the Makran coast around Pakistan and Iran
• In all, 134 sacks of suspected methamphetamine, a boat and other items salvaged from the ship were brought to Kochi and handed over to the NCB

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