Now information is coming out that the value of drugs seized from the Indian sea border and brought to Kochi coast is around 25,000 crores. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India has taken into custody a person suspected to be a Pakistani national. 2,500 kg of high quality crystal meth or methamphetamine was seized from this ship. There are also reports that smugglers sank the mother ship along with the rest of the drugs. This is the most valuable drug seizure by an Indian anti- narcotics enforcement agency. This massive narcotics hunt was carried out under an intelligence program called Operation Samudragupt.
What is Operation Samudragupt?
Operation Samudragupta is a joint operation by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Indian Navy against the menace of narcotics that is eating away at India. Operation Samudragupt was launched by the NCB Director General on the instructions of the Narendra Modi government against heroin and other drug trafficking in the Indian Ocean region. NCB Deputy Director General (Operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh is leading the operation involving officials from NCB Headquarters Operations Branch.
The Indian Navy and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) jointly launched the project in January 2022 under the name of Operation Samudragupta. The first phase aimed to prevent drug smuggling on ships coming from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The main objective of the operation was to obtain information about ships carrying such illegal goods. The group works hand in hand with drug control and law enforcement agencies including DRI and ATS Gujarat and intelligence agencies like the Intelligence Wing of the Indian Navy and NTRO.This anti- narcotics agency has seized drugs worth Rs 50,000 crore in one year.
'Operation Samudragupt' was first successful in February 2022. In a joint operation that day, 529 kg of hashish, 221 kg of methamphetamine and 13 kg of heroin were recovered from the Gujarat coast. It originated in Balochistan and Afghanistan. In its second successful mission, the team intercepted an Iranian boat off the coast of Kerala in October 2022. Six Iranian drug smugglers and 200 kg of high-grade heroin manufactured in Afghanistan were also seized.
The third major operation took place in Kochi offshore last day. According to media sources, about 15 days ago, the NCB and the Navy received a tip-off about the movement of cargo through the Indian coast. Even then, they were busy waiting with a Jewish ring. According to the NCB, the drug-laden mother ship, which left Pakistan's Makran coast near Iran, was distributing the drugs to other boats. The NCB said in a statement that information provided by Sri Lanka and Maldives to Indian officials helped in the current seizure. In December 2022 and April 2023, the Sri Lankan Navy nabbed 19 drug dealers in two operations. 286 kg of heroin and 128 kg of methamphetamine were seized that day.'