The Pakistani nationals, in an attempt to evade arrest during the operation, tried to run their boat over the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials, who in return opened fire on the Pakistani crew, they said.

A senior Gujarat ATS official said they received intelligence input that Pakistani drug lord Haji Aslam alias Babu Baloch was trying to smuggle mephedrone drugs from Karachi port using fishing trawler ‘Al-Raza’ between April 25 night and April 26 early morning and was to arrive closer to India’s International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) off Porbandar coast.

The drugs were planned to be transported to Tamil Nadu via an Indian boat, with final delivery to a drug lord in Sri Lanka. The Pakistani boat, identified by the call sign ‘Ali’ via onboard radio, coordinated with an Indian boat assigned the password ‘Haider’ for the drug delivery, according to officials.

On April 26 early morning, a team comprising Gujarat ATS and the Indian Coast Guard reached approximately 180 nautical miles from Porbandar towards the IMBL, where they sighted a suspicious boat. “The crew members of the boat started disposing some of the drug packets in the sea on seeing the Indian security forces. They attempted to ram the Indian security officials’ vessel with their fishing boat,” according to officials.

“In response, the operations team fired, injuring one Pakistani crew member. The Indian officials soon boarded the Pakistani vessel and arrested the 14 crew members along with 78 packets of drugs, which contained about 86 kilograms of contraband worth around ₹602 crore,” officials added.

The operation was an epitome of inter-agency coordination wherein Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) collaborated seamlessly which culminated in the successful operation, the ICG said in a press statement.

“The ships and aircraft of Indian Coast Guard were deployed on concurrent missions to effect the operation. ICG ship Rajratan, which had NCB and ATS officials embarked, positively identified the suspect boat. No amount of evasive manoeuvring tactics employed by the drug laden boat could save it from the swift and strong ICG ship Rajratan. The ship’s specialist team embarked the suspect boat and after thorough checks, confirmed the presence of the sizeable amount of narcotics,” it said.

The Pakistani boat along with its crew has been apprehended and is being brought to Porbandar for further investigations. The jointness of ICG and ATS, which has led to eleven such successful law enforcement operations in the last three years itself reaffirms the synergy for national objective, it said.

This is the eleventh such apprehension by ICG, jointly with ATS Gujarat and NCB, in the last three years, amounting to around 600 kg Narcotics worth at least ₹3,700 crore, said officials.

On April 26, The Gujarat ATS and NCB conducted a joint operation, arresting 13 individuals across Gujarat and Rajasthan for allegedly possessing mephedrone valued at ₹230 crore. Following a tip-off received by the ATS, raids were conducted on April 26 as they suspected that Ahmedabad resident Manoharlal Enani and Kuldeepsinh Rajpurohit from Rajasthan had established mephedrone manufacturing units, officials said.

In March this year, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in a joint operation with Gujarat ATS and NCB apprehended a Pakistani boat with six crew members carrying narcotics worth ₹480 crore. The boat was seized about 350 Km from Porbandar into Arabian Sea in a sea-air coordinated operation involving Indian Coast Guard ships and Dornier Aircraft.

Over the past two years, the NCB has collaborated with the Indian Navy on three significant operations in the Indian Ocean. In February 2022, they confiscated 221 kg of methamphetamine from a ship off the Gujarat coast. Another notable seizure occurred in October 2022, when 200 kg of high-grade heroin was intercepted from a ship near the Kerala coast. In May of the previous year, the NCB intercepted a ship from Pakistan in the Indian Ocean, seizing at least 2,500 kg of methamphetamine valued at ₹12,000 crore. This interception prevented the drugs from reaching cartels in India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.