NCB uses Isro satellite images to track wealth amassment by drug baron

AHMEDABAD: Employing adroit evidence-gathering skills, the Narcotics Control Bureau has for the first time used Isro's ADRIN satellite imagery to record stages of construction on property owned by an alleged drug baron over a period of four years in Jodia village, in Devbhoomi-Dwarka. This was done to attempt to establish that Isa Rao, the main accused in the Rs 600 crore Morbi drug haul of November 2021, had amassed wealth from the illicit trade.
After procuring proof pertaining to his house, which cost Rs 57 lakh to build, the NCB on Tuesday issued a seizure order to acquire Rao's property. "Rao had not submitted any documents to the local panchayat on the addition he was making to his property. So we decided to take the help of the Advanced Data Processing Research Institute of Isro to establish how he had developed his property in Jodia and built a three-storey house," a senior NCB officer said.
NCB monitored the changes made to the property between 2019 and November 2022 to establish how a huge bungalow had come up on the plot of land while he allegedly actively ran his illicit business, an NCB officer said. NCB also used Google Earth to verify the images of Rao's property, he said.
Rao went into hiding after the Gujarat ATS seized 120kg heroin worth Rs 600 crore from an under-construction house in Morbi on November 15, 2021. The consignment was smuggled into India via the Gujarat coast. Three people were arrested. Further investigation led to the seizure of another 155.3kg of heroin, worth Rs 776.5 crore, and the arrests of 14 people, including a Nigerian national. In that case, too, Rao was found to be allegedly involved.
The heroin consignments had been bought from Pakistani drug mafia and the delivery was made mid-sea in October last week. The haul was meant to be transported to Punjab, officials said. As per ATS officials, after landing the drugs consignment in India, Rao had fled India in November 2021. He was given shelter in Karachi, allegedly by Dawood Ibrahim gang. His last location was traced to Clifton Road in Karachi. The case was handed over to NCB in December.