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The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has seized 205.6 kg heroin worth Rs 1,439 crore from a container near Kandla port in Gujarat and arrested an importer from Punjab in this connection following an extensive search operation, the DRI said on Monday.
According to a senior police official, the contraband was recovered from one of the 17 containers which had arrived at the Kandla port from Iran between September and October last year.
Earlier on April 21, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad had announced that the DRI in a joint operation with the ATS seized over 200 kg of heroin worth Rs 1,300 crore after conducting a raid at a container station near Kandla port in Kutch district of the state.
On Monday, the DRI in a release said, "Based on intelligence developed jointly with officers of the Gujarat ATS, officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence are currently examining a consignment, imported by an Uttarakhand-based firm at Kandla port."
The consignment arrived at the Kandla port from the Bandar Abbas port, Iran. The consignment, imported in 17 containers having 10,318 bags, had a gross weight of 394 metric tonnes and was declared as "gypsum powder", said the release.
"So far, 205.6 kg of heroin, valued at Rs 1,439 crore in the illicit market, has been recovered. A detailed examination of the consignment is still going on at the port," the DRI said.
"The importer was not found at the registered address in Uttarakhand. Accordingly, a manhunt was launched across the country to nab the importer," said the DRI, which has not revealed the importer's identity.
The DRI conducted searches at various places across India to locate the importer, who was changing locations and hiding to evade identification.
He was eventually arrested from a small village in Punjab under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The importer had tried to resist and flee, but he was nabbed by the DRI officers, said the release.
The DRI acquired his transit remand from a special court in Amritsar on Sunday. He will be produced before a jurisdictional court in Bhuj town of Kutch on Monday, it said.
Commenting on the development, Gujarat Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia said the 17 containers had arrived at the Kandla port from Iran between September and October last year and were under the scanner since then.
"Though the containers were searched back then also, nothing suspicious was found by the authorities. Later, based on a specific input by the ATS that one container carried the contraband, the DRI, with the help of forensic experts, recovered 205.6 kg of heroin from that container," Bhatia said at the ATS headquarters here.
The development comes months after the seizure of 2,988 kg of heroin worth Rs 21,000 crore from two containers at the Mundra port in Gujarat in September last year.