"The transaction was going to take place on the high seas."
Arms, ammunition and approximately 40-kilogram of drugs were seized on a Pakistani fishing boat in an operation led by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
In a tweet released by the Indian Coast Guard, the information of seized items was listed:
“@IndiaCoastGuard in joint ops with ATS #Gujarat, apprehended #Pakistani Fishing Boat Al Soheli with 10 crew in Indian waters.
“During rummaging Arms, ammunition & approx 40 Kgs #narcotics worth Rs 300 cr were found concealed.
“Boat being brought to #Okha for further investigation.”
The operation was conducted during the night of December 25 and December 26, 2022.
ICG and Gujarat ATS acted on specific intelligence inputs and ICGS Arinjay ship was deployed near the national International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) to patrol the area.
@IndiaCoastGuard in joint ops with ATS #Gujarat, apprehended #Pakistani Fishing Boat Al Soheli with 10 crew in Indian waters. During rummaging Arms, ammunition & approx 40 Kgs #narcotics worth Rs 300 cr found concealed. Boat being brought to #Okha for further investigation. pic.twitter.com/3YwzKne6bQ
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) December 26, 2022
The ICG team stopped the Pakistani fishing boat ‘Al Soheli’ with a ten people crew after it was moving suspiciously in Indian waters.
The ICG started questioning the crew on the Pakistani boat who started evasive manoeuvring and did not stop even when the ICG fired warning shots.
When the ICG team got onto the Pakistani boat, they found the crew behaving suspiciously. After searching the boat, they recovered arms, ammunition and narcotics.
This was the seventh such joint operation by ICG and Gujarat ATS this year and the third such crackdown in three months.
In a similar operation in October 2022, the Indian Coast Guard and Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) seized a Pakistani boat, ‘Al Sakar’, carrying 50kg of heroin in the international market.
Officers apprehended six crew members near the International Maritime Boundary Line.
Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia commented:
“It was discovered that the shipment was transported by Mohd Kadar, a major drug baron based in Pakistan.
“The transaction was going to take place on the high seas.
“As soon as Gujarat ATS received the information, an operation was launched, and six Pakistanis were nabbed.”
In September 2022, a Pakistani boat was seized six miles inside Indian waters with 40 kg of drugs worth Rs 200 crore (£20 million).
The state ATS and the Indian Coast Guard have foiled several such attempts of drug smuggling in the past and caught foreign nationals with huge quantities of narcotics trying to smuggle via the Gujarat coast.
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