The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad has seized 75.3 kg of high quality heroin valued at Rs 376.5 crore from a container at the Mundra port in Gujarat that was headed for Punjab.
The contraband, hidden inside fabric rolls to dodge the authorities, was sent from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was meant to be transported to Punjab, Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia said on Tuesday.
The Punjab police recently informed the Gujarat ATS that a shipping container which arrived at the Mundra port about two months ago might be containing drugs and the cargo was meant to be delivered in Punjab, Mr Bhatia told reporters in Gandhinagar.
"After getting the basic information, a Gujarat ATS team along with a Punjab police sub-inspector reached Mundra and located the suspected container kept at a Container Freight Station near the port. It arrived at the Mundra port on May 13 from Ajman Free Zone in the UAE," he said.
During a close inspection of 540 fabric rolls kept in the container, the heroin powder was found inside 64 of them.
"A cloth was wrapped on long cylindrical pipes made of cardboard. Drug dealers had created a cavity by putting a plastic pipe of a larger diameter on the cardboard pipe. Heroin was filled in the cavity and then sealed tightly using carbon tapes so that it goes undetected in X-ray check," the official said.
Drug smugglers have been using the sea route to get large quantities of contraband into the country. Kandla and Pipavav in Gujarat, Nhava Sheva in Maharashtra and Chennai are some of the ports where drugs have been seized in recent months.
