The Gujarat Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) conducted a search operation for drugs at the Mundra port of Kutch in Gujarat late on July 11, The Times of India has reported. The raid comes a few months after India's biggest ever haul of narcotics was made from the port.
According to police sources cited in the report, the ATS has been working with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on an operation after receiving information that a sizeable amount of drugs were being stashed at the country's largest private airport.
"There is an ongoing operation for drugs seizure at Mundra port. Unless and until, we recovered and checked the quality and quantity of the drugs, we cannot divulge any information on this operation. But it is confirmed that there is going to be a drugs seizure in Mundra," an ATS officer was quoted as saying by TOI.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
An ATS team arrived at Mundra port early on July 11 and began investigating, police sources said.
In April, Gujarat ATS and DRI had found 260 kilograms of heroin worth Rs 1,300 crore hidden inside a container at the Kandla port in Kutch.
Gujarat's 1,600-km coastline appears to have gained popularity with foreign and intrastate drug cartels, which are smuggling contrabands into the country.
The DRI captured a shipment containing 3,000 kg of heroin at Mundra port in September 2021, making it the largest narcotics seizure in the nation.
Later, the anti-terror agency National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the investigation, TOI said.
After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, seizures that followed included 3,000 kgs of drugs at Mundra, two ATS mid-sea operations where 35 kgs and 77 kgs of heroin were sized, and then 146 kgs of heroin was seized from a Morbi village and other coastal Saurashtra locations, police said.
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