High sea drug bust: DRI, Coast Guard seize 218 kg heroin off Lakshwadeep
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 May, 2022 10:37 AM
New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) In a joint operation titled "Khojbeen", the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Indian Coast Guard maintained patient vigil on rough seas for over 10 days to bust an international drug syndicate and seized 128 kg heroin smuggled on two boats off the coast of Lakshadweep Islands, officials said on Friday.
Two boats "Prince" and "Little Jesus" have been seized and few persons have been detained.
The operation was launched by the DRI after it developed specific intelligence, over a period of several months, that two Indian boats would be sailing from the coast of Tamil Nadu and would receive narcotics in huge quantity somewhere in the Arabian Sea.
Accordingly, joint operation "Khojbeen" was launched on May 7.
Under the operation, Coast Guard ship Sujeet, with DRI officials onboard, maintained a close watch near the country's Exclusive Economic Zone.
"After several days of continuous search and monitoring amidst very rough seas, two boats 'Prince' and 'Little Jesus' were noticed moving towards India. Both the Indian boats were intercepted on May 18 off the coast of Lakshadweep Islands. On questioning some of the crew members in the boats confessed that they had received heroin in huge quantity on the high seas and that they had concealed it in both the boats. In view thereof, both the boats were escorted to Kochi for further proceedings," said a DRI official.
A thorough search of both the boats was carried out at the Coast Guard District Headquarters at Kochi, which resulted in recovery of 218 1-kg packets of of heroin.
"The operation was meticulously planned and executed by the DRI and the ICG and entailed extensive surveillance in the rough seas over a period of several days. Seized drug appears to be of high-grade heroin and its value in the international illicit market is estimated to be around Rs 1,526 crore," the official said.
In the recent past, both agencies have undertaken some significant anti-drug trafficking operations.
This is the fourth major drug bust by the DRI in the past one month. Earlier, it recovered 205.6 kg of heroin from a commercial import consignment of gypsum powder at the Kandla port on April 20, 396 kg of heroin-laced threads at Pipavav port on April 29, and 62 kg heroin at Air Cargo Complex, IGI New Delhi on May 10, totally valued at approximately Rs 2,500 crore in the international illicit market.
Nishad, the main accused has reportedly fled the country. Property worth Rs 36.62 crore belonging to Nishad and others were earlier attached by the ED. Gafoor, the director of Stox Global Brokers Private Limited, was arrested as Rs 39 crore which was reportedly proceeds of crime was transferred through his firm. The ED has claimed that his firm is basically a shell company.
Responding to the question of Samajwadi Party Member Rewati Raman Singh, the Minister of State, Health, Bharati Pawar said that altogether, 22 All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are being set up in the country. Out of 10 proposed in the first phase, six have started functioning with all departments.
Along with this, the party has also started a digital membership campaign. This was announced on Sunday at the workers' conference in Jaipur. The AAP announced fresh beginnings for the election preparations from this conference.
Making an announcement in a video message, he said the Aam Aadmi Party government's scheme is aimed at providing good quality ration 'atta' (wheat flour) and 'daal' (pulses) to the people packed in clean gunny bags.
About 105.14 lakh farmers have been benefited with an MSP value of Rs 1,45,358.13 crore, government data showed. Apart from Punjab (1,87,28,335 MT) and Chhattisgarh (92,01,000 MT), the other top paddy procurement states included Telangana (70,22,000 MT), Uttar Pradesh (65,53,029 MT) Odisha (57,16,134), Haryana (55,30,596), Madhya Pradesh (45,82,610), and Bihar (44,90,319 MT).
The bank employees organised demonstrations, sit-in protests, processions and rallies near their workplaces in different cities and towns protesting against the privatisation of banks undertaken by the Centre.
