NCB seizes 3,500 kg drugs in Indian waters off Gujarat coast

Gyaneshwar Singh, NCB’s deputy director general (operations), said this is the highest ever seizure of drugs offshore in terms of quantity

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Indian Navy have seized the highest quantity of drugs—3500 kg—offshore to date worth over ₹1000 crore and arrested five men suspected to be from Pakistan or Iran from a ship in the Indian waters off the Gujarat coast, officials said on Wednesday.

Gyaneshwar Singh, NCB’s deputy director general (operations), said the agency will share more details about the seizure later on Wednesday. “The five arrested men do not have identity papers. They are either from Iran or Pakistan. This is the highest ever seizure offshore [in terms of quantity] in the country,” Singh said.

The NCB has conducted three major operations in the Indian ocean with the Indian Navy over the last two years. In February 2022, they recovered 221 kg methamphetamine from a ship off Gujarat coast. Another 200 kg high grade heroin was seized from a ship near the Kerala coast in October 2022.

In May last year, the NCB seized at least 2500 kg methamphetamine worth ₹12000 crore from a ship from Pakistan. The ship was intercepted in the Indian Ocean before it the drugs from it could be handed over to cartels in India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

NCB’s probe in earlier cases suggested that Pakistan-based Haji Salim was using the marine channel to smuggle drugs into India.