260kg heroin worth Rs 1,300 crore found in gypsum powder container shipped to Gujarat from Iran

Ahmedabad, April 22: In a joint operation, Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized nearly 260kg of heroin worth about Rs 1,300 crore from a container at a Container Freight Station of Deendayal Port Trust.

The raid was carried out following an input received by ATS, which indicated that heroin had been smuggled into India via a port in Iran. According to ATS officials, their initial information was that the consignment containing the drugs was lying at Container Freight Station near Kandla port for 6 months as no one had come to claim it.

“It was then we got a tip that there could be heroin in the bags and we passed on the information to DRI,” said an ATS official.

The officers of Gujarat ATS and DRI tracked the consignment and raided the facility on Thursday. Officials said the heroin bags were hidden among those containing gypsum powder and hence forensic experts were summoned by DRI.

“We checked one of the 17 containers sent from Afghanistan and found 13 bags containing 20 kg heroin in each bag. We are yet to inspect the other containers and we suspect that some of them may also contain the narcotic substance,” said a person aware of the matter.

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Officials said they suspect that the consignment originated from Kandahar of Afghanistan, which was first sent to Pakistan from where it was shipped to Bandar Abbas Port in Iran, before landing in Kandla port.

Gujarat handles nearly 1/3 of India's cargo through its ports and is considered to have emerged as a key entry point for narcotics trafficking.

In September 2021, DRI seized 3,000 kg of drugs from the Mundra port of Kutch, the biggest drug haul in the country. The case was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency to look into the angle of terror financing through drug smuggling.