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‘Going after small fish,’ Congress accuses NCB of ignoring heroin haul from Mundra
The Congress party demanded that the drug nexus operating from Adani’s Mundra port be investigated by a Commission composed of two sitting Supreme Court judges. Until the drug cartel is behind bars, the threat to India’s youth and national security will remain, it emphasised.
The Congress on Sunday accused the ruling BJP and its agencies including the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of trying to protect the people involved in the drug trade while diverting attention from the ‘main haul’ at the Mundra port.
Goa Congress spokesperson Dr Shama Mohammed said that the NCB was “very busy arresting small fish” while simultaneously ignoring the 3,000 kg heroin that was smuggled into the country through the Adani Mundra Port.
“Why is NCB protecting the kingpins of the organised drug cartel and on whose orders? These lethal drugs are now in our country. Never in the history of India has such a large quantity of drugs been smuggled inside our borders without any intervening check from the government,” Dr Mohammed, said.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on 15 September 2021 seized nearly 3,000 kg of heroin branded as ‘Semicut Talcum Powder’ from Gujarat’s Mundra port — the largest consignment caught by the DRI so far. This haul is estimated to be worth over ₹21,000 crore in the international market. The heroin was found in two containers that landed at Mundra port from Afghanistan via Iran, exported from the Afghanistani firm M/s Hassan Hussain Limited, and imported in the name of Aashi Trading Company of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
“It is impossible for such a massive shipment of drugs to be brought in without political patronage. Where are the NCB, IB, CBI and Customs Departments when such an organised drug syndicate is operating freely from the Mundra port?” she asked.
The party demanded that the drug nexus operating from Adani’s Mundra port be investigated by a Commission composed of two sitting Supreme Court judges. Until the drug cartel is behind bars, the threat to India’s youth and national security will remain.
“The Narcotics Control Bureau has been tasked with the matter of drug law enforcement in the country. It is the primary responsibility of the NCB to monitor, investigate, and prevent the movement of drugs into India. This is the same agency which went into overdrive over 59 gm of marijuana in the Sushant Singh death case, but is now missing in action when thousands of kilograms of hard drugs are being smuggled into the country,” she said.
“The NCB has been without a full time head for the past 18 months, which is very concerning. An agency of such vital importance cannot function efficiently without a full-time chief. Had the DRI, whose primary job isn’t that of intercepting drugs, not caught the recent shipment, it would have gone through like previous ones,” Dr. Shama Mohammed said.
Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar pointed out that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had also chanced upon a haul of 200 kgs of banned drug ketamine that was seized from the premises of a BJP office bearer.
In 2018 Goa BJP office bearer Vassudev Parab was questioned by the DRI after a haul of 308 kgs of ketamine was seized from his godown. He was never arrested.
