Boat illegally carrying 3,500 sheep and goats to Dubai seized, says Pune Customs

Officers of the wing received an input last week about the coastal movement of livestock from the Vijaydurg port in Sindhudurg, Maharashtra, to the Okha port in Gujarat. The vessel set sail towards Okha from Vijaydurg at 9am on April 20. From the billing information, it appeared that around 3,500 sheep and goats were being transported from Karnataka to Gujarat to meet festive demand, a Pune Customs officer said.

From the billing information, it appeared that around 3,500 sheep and goats were being transported from Karnataka to Gujarat to meet festive demand, a Pune Customs officer said.

“Since the supply of the livestock from Karnataka to Gujarat did not appear to be a general trade practice and there was no previous history of coastal passage of livestock from Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri, the movement appeared unlikely and suspicious. Since the marine team was parallelly processing unconfirmed intelligence on the input about an illegal export movement to Pakistan, it was decided to place the vessel under monitoring to rule out any illegal export,” the officer added.

One team started monitoring the vessel’s movement through the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which is a tracking mechanism that uses transceivers on ships and is used by the vessel traffic service. Another team was deployed at sea in such a way that a visual identification of the passage of the vessel could be established. It subsequently came to light that the AIS was switched off and the vessel was not in the expected vicinity. An alert was immediately forwarded to the Joint Operations Centre of the Coast Guard, Mumbai.

“The Coast Guard was able to detect the vessel approx 90 nautical miles in the open sea and on the course to Dubai. A request was made by the Customs team to intercept the vessel for further inquiry. The Coast Guard was able to intercept the vessel at sea at around 12.30am on April 21,” the officer said.

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The officer said the vessel was escorted to the Jaigad anchorage in Ratnagiri, where Customs officers conducted a thorough search resulting in the seizure of incriminating elements such as fake shipping bills, invoices, fake Customs clearance with the use of fake seals of various authorities, fake import documents pertaining to imports in Dubai, dubious emigration documents and fake animal health certificates. “The vessel, along with its crew and cargo, has been detained for investigation. All local authorities, director-general (shipping), animal boards and state veterinary departments have been alerted and coordinated relief action is also underway,” the officer added.