Chandigarh: Three days after the huge haul of heroin from a Gujarat port, the Maharashtra police seized 73 kg of heroin from Nhava Sheva port in Mumbai on Punjab police’s tip-off on Friday.
Director general of police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said that the intelligence-led operation regarding the smuggling of heroin from the United Arad Emirates (UAE) was carried out jointly by the teams of Punjab police and Maharashtra police.
The big haul came in less than 72 hours of recovering 75 kg heroin from a container at Mundra port in Gujarat which too was made on the inputs provided by the Punjab police. The worth of the said contraband was estimated to be over Rs 350 crore. This consignment was kept concealed in a container of unstitched clothes using a cardboard pipe which was further camouflaged by an oversized plastic pipe. The container, which was loaded from Jebel Ali port in UAE, was booked by an importer from Malerkotla, Punjab. Yadav held that as the links of the container had been established with Punjab and though it was likely to be routed to some other place via Punjab.
With this recovery, the Punjab police has got effected recovery of a total of 148 kg heroin within three days.
“The contraband was kept concealed in the door border of the container containing white marble tiles imported by Delhi-based importer ``Nandani Traders’’, said the DGP in a statement adding that after concealing the contraband, the accused persons had also attempted to meticulously weld the door border and painted it again.
Elaborating upon the cache, he said that following inputs, the Punjab police’s state special operation cell (SSOC), immediately sent a team to Mumbai and deputed at the Nhava Sheva port. The DGP said that after following due procedure, the container was opened up which led to the recovery of a big haul of contraband. The police is carrying out further investigations to ascertain backward and forward linkages, he added.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra police had registered a case under relevant sections of the NDPS Act, the official release added.
