The heroin was hidden inside fabric rolls and sent from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was meant to be transported to Punjab.
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Police Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has seized 75.3 kg of heroin estimated worth Rs 376.5 crore from a container near the Mundra port in Kutch district, said an official on Tuesday.
The contraband was hidden inside fabric rolls and sent from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was meant to be transported to Punjab, said Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia.
The Punjab Police had recently given a tip-off to the Gujarat ATS that a shipping container which arrived at the Mundra port about two and half months back might be containing drugs and the cargo was meant to be delivered in Punjab, Bhatia told reporters in Gandhinagar.
He added, “An ATS team along with a Punjab police sub-inspector reached Mundra and located the suspected container kept at a Container Freight Station. It arrived at the Mundra port on May 13 from Ajman Free Zone in the UAE.”
During a close inspection of 540 fabric rolls kept in the container, the heroin powder was found inside 64 of them, he said.
Bhatia added, “A cloth was wrapped on long cylindrical pipes made of cardboard. They had created a cavity by putting a plastic pipe of a larger diameter on the cardboard pipe. The heroin was filled in the cavity and then sealed tightly using carbon tapes so that it goes undetected in the X-ray check.” The ATS recovered 75.3 kg of heroin of high purity estimated to be worth Rs 376.5 crore in the international market, Bhatia said.
The container was meant to be transported to Punjab, he said adding that no arrest has been made yet.
The container was sent by one Green Forest General Trading in the UAE and it was received by Jovial Container Lines, a West Bengal-based delivery agent having its office at Gandhidham in Kutch, he said.
The DRI in September had seized nearly 3,000 kg of heroin, believed to have originated in Afghanistan and worth about Rs 21,000 crore. This seizure too was made at the Mundra port.
In May this year, the DRI seized 56 kg of cocaine, estimated to be worth around Rs 500 crore, from a container near the Mundra port.