₹125 crore heroin consignment seized at Navi Mumbai port came from Afghanistan: DRI

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which had recently seized about 25.45kg of heroin worth ₹125 crore at the Nhava Sheva port in Navi Mumbai, on Saturday said that the consignment originated from Kandahar, Afghanistan

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which had recently seized about 25.45 kilograms of heroin worth ₹125 crore at the Nhava Sheva port in Navi Mumbai, on Saturday said that the consignment originated from Kandahar, Afghanistan. The central agency has also arrested two more persons who were involved in financial transactions including hawala for smooth import of the consignment. Earlier the DRI had arrested a businessman in the case.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which had recently seized about 25.45 kilograms of heroin worth ₹125 crore at the Nhava Sheva port in Navi Mumbai, on Saturday said that the consignment originated from Kandahar, Afghanistan. (AFP)

The apex anti-smuggling agency suspects that the consignment was part of a larger international narcotics trafficking.

The drug consignment was concealed in the boxes of sesame seed oil and mustard oil and was being smuggled via Iran to India in a container. The drugs were concealed at the bottom of oil cans.

This is a new modus operandi. It is for the first time that heroin has been seized by any Indian Agency, which was found to have been concealed in oil cans, in order to make it nearly impossible to detect it during the course of usual examination of import cargo, said DRI.

The agency officials found out that the shipment was imported by a small-time businessman named Sandeep Thakkar from Masjid Bunder area. When interrogated, Thakkar told DRI sleuths that he has given his firm’s Import Export Code to another businessman, Jayesh Sanghvi, from Navi Mumbai who offered him a commission on every import order from Iran.

Sanghvi has lived in Iran for a long time. The consignment was imported by him from Afghanistan by using his old connections in Iran. In his statement, he accepted that the imported consignment from which the narcotics were recovered, belonged to him, and divulged details about his Afghan connections. He was subsequently arrested under the NDPS Act for smuggling narcotic drugs.

Later DRI arrested two more persons from Delhi on Friday and brought them to Mumbai under transit remand. Both of them were involved in financial transactions including hawala for smooth import of this consignment.

All three accused have been remanded in DRI custody by courts for further investigation.

Earlier in July this year DRI Mumbai had seized 294 Kgs Heroin at

Nhava Sheva port from a consignment which too had originated from Afghanistan. Before that, in August 2020, DRI Mumbai had seized 191.6 Kgs Heroin at Nhava Sheva port from yet another consignment of Afghanistan origin. All these Drugs consignments originating from Afghanistan are shipped though Iranian ports of Chabahar/Bandar Abbas.