AHMEDABAD: Less than five months after India's biggest-ever drug haul off the Gujarat coast, 750-odd kg of contraband estimated to cost around Rs 2,000 crore in the illegal market was confiscated by a team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Indian Navy from a "foreign" ship sailing in the high seas not far from Porbandar-Jamnagar.
The seized drugs include "529kg high quality hashish, 234kg crystal Methamphetamine and some quantity of heroin", the agencies said.
The raid, said to be a first in the high seas, was initiated by the NCB. Inputs from the bureau were shared with the Naval Intelligence Unit, setting up the joint operation, the statement said.
The local NCB office didn't disclose the details, including the number of people apprehended, their nationality, origin of the haul and their possible destination.
Sources said the ship had foreign crew. "The Afghanistan route cannot be ruled out due to the nature and quantity of the contraband, which isn't available elsewhere in the region. This is one of the few instances of more than one type of drugs being seized together, indicating a change in modus operandi," a source said.
It added: "It's likely that the contraband was to reach an Indian port before its transit elsewhere. It's difficult to get ships from a few nearby countries to get clearance at the majority of ports across the world."