Gujarat ATS arrested 8 Pakistani men on board a boat off Gujarat coast and seized 30 kg of heroin
Eight Pakistani nationals on board a boat were arrested with heroin worth around Rs 150 crore off the Gujarat coast in the Arabian Sea early on Thursday morning, the state Anti-Terror Squad said.
Investigation revealed that the contraband, weighing 30 kg, was meant to be transported to Punjab by road after landing on the Gujarat coast via the sea route, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) said in a release.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, ATS, Bhavesh Rozia had learnt from his sources that a Pakistan-registered boat 'Nooh, carrying heroin, would arrive at the Gujarat coast near Jakhau port of Kutch district during early hours of Thursday, it said.
Based on the tip-off, officials of the Gujarat ATS reached Jakhau and formed a joint team with the Indian Coast Guard.
The team members boarded the Coast Guard's interceptor boat and started patrolling the sea near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), close to the Jakhau coast late Wednesday night, the Anti-Terror Squad or ATS said.
As per the tip-off, the patrolling team spotted the boat 'Nooh' in the Indian waters, around 40 nautical miles from the Jakhau coast, during early hours of Thursday, it said.
The joint team apprehended eight Pakistani men on board the boat and seized 30 kg of heroin, a psychotropic drug, from their possession, the ATS said.
The value of the seized drug is around Rs 150 crore in the international market, the release said.
The boat carrying the eight Pakistani men was later towed to the Coast Guard station in Jakhau for further investigation into the matter, the ATS said.
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