In recent times, the Mundra port in Gujarat has been the center of narcotics smuggling, and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday told a special court in Ahmedabad that terror groups with links with Pakistan are part of a network involved in the seizure of heroin worth ₹21,000 crore.
In the submission of its chargesheet the NIA filed against 16 people – 11 Afghan nationals, four Indians, and an Iranian – in the case and told the court that so far it has arrested 10 people, while six are absconding.
In September 2021, in a combined operation, the security agencies caught nearly three tonnes of heroin, disguised as a consignment of semi-processed talc stones that had arrived from Afghanistan through Iran’s Bandar Abbas port
The consignment was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the case was later transferred to the NIA in October and the seizure was called India’s biggest drug bust so far.
In its chargesheet, the agency said identified those arrested as Machavaram Sudhakar, his wife DP Vaishali, Rajkumar Perumal, and Pradeep Kumar, all Indian citizens. Others mentioned in the chargesheet are Mohammad Khan Akhlaqi, Said Mohammad Hussaini, Fardin Amery, Sobhan Aryanfar, Alokozai Mohammad Khan, and Murtaza Hakimi, and all are from Afghanistan.
The names of the six absconding traffickers including Afghan nationals Hasan Dad, Hassan, Najibullah Khan Khalid, Esmat Ullah Honari and Abdul Hadi Alizada, and an Iranian national named Javad Najafi.
The NIA told the court that the profits from the drug trafficking were channelled back to foreign entities through “hawala” channels and that is where the Pakistan connection emerged as the money was meant to finance Pakistan-based Islamic terror outfits for “anti-India” activities.
“Links of the accused Dad and Hassan and other co-conspirators have also emerged with proscribed terror organisations based in Pakistan,” the National Investigation Agency said in a statement.
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