₹362.50 heroin seizure: Container booked by person in Delhi, claim Navi police

Following the seizure of heroin worth ₹362.50 crore in Navi Mumbai, police claimed that the container was booked by a person in Delhi; according to the Navi Mumbai police, the modus operandi in such cases is that the accused do not go to claim the container fearing a trap by the police

Following the seizure of heroin worth ₹362.50 crore in Navi Mumbai, police claimed that the container was booked by a person in Delhi.

BK Singh (6th from left), Navi Mumbai Commissioner of Police, and other police officials with the heroin and the container that were seized in Panvel. Police said that the container was booked by a person in Delhi. (BACHCHAN KUMAR/HT PHOTO)

According to the Navi Mumbai police, the modus operandi in such cases is that the accused do not go to claim the container fearing a trap by the police. It is already found that there are drugs hidden. The container that was seized on Thursday by Navi Mumbai crime branch after receiving information from Punjab police has been lying in a logistics firm in Panvel since December 2021.

“In order to get the container, they wait till it gets auctioned. When any container stays unclaimed for a long time, the logistics firm incurs losses as they don’t get the rent for keeping the same. Hence, they auction it. When the auction happens, the actual owner of the container sends someone else ahead to bag the auction and get the container. We suspect that a similar modus would have been planned in this case too, and the accused was waiting for the container to get auctioned,” said an officer.

In the meantime, the police have formed a Special Investigating Team (SIT) involving five police teams. “The container, in which the 72.50kg drug was hidden in a metal frame of the door, was booked by someone from Delhi as per the documents. While one team has left for Delhi to investigate that lead, another has left for Gujarat to investigate a lead on the agents who operate in the trading of the imports,” a police officer said.