The eight Pakistani nationals brought to Mumbai and booked for transporting heroin across the high seas had no fixed destination and changed their route plan on the basis of calls they received from their handlers, police officers who interrogated them said. “They had each been paid Rs 10,000 in Pakistani currency before they set out from Karachi and were to be paid an additional Rs 10,000 after they completed delivery of the drug. They say they did not know that their boat was carrying drugs,” said a senior Mumbai Police officer. The men-Maqsood Maseem (39), Mohammad Natho (38), Alibaksh Khashkeli (30), Mohammad Gagawani (45), Mohammad Sumar (35), Mohammad Baluch (30), Gulhasan Siddik (40) and Mohammad Inayat (38)-were remanded in custody of the Yellow Gate police until May 5. [related-post] They have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The police sought their custody to probe and find who their handlers in India and Pakistan were, and where the consignment was to be delivered. According to the police, four of the men are natives of Pakistan’s Sindh province, and the other four hail from Karachi. The Coast Guard intercepted the boat 150 miles off the Porbandar coast in Gujarat on April 20. According to an application submitted by the police in the Ballard Pier Court on Monday, the Coast Guard’s suspicions were aroused when they saw no name on the boat’s exterior, and no flag on it. A search of the vessel revealed 11 small drums filled with 232 packets, which were found to contain heroin, police said. The Coast Guard found 3 Thuraya satellite phones, two GPS navigation systems and an electronic navigation map. The Coast Guard seized the vessel’s manifest, which revealed that it was named Al Yashir, the cops revealed. The arrested crew were brought to Mumbai after a court in Porbandar ruled that the local police did not have jurisdiction to probe the case. “Alibkash Khashkeli is the vessel’s skipper. He told us his handlers would contact him on Thuraya phones and instruct him on the vessel’s destination. The Thuraya handsets are of no use to us because we will not receive call data records to show who the crew communicated with. But we will try to acquire the CDR of their cell phones,” the police officer said. The arrested men are being interrogated by officials of Mumbai Police Crime Branch and the Narcotics Control Bureau. Yellow Gate police station located on P. D’Mello Road has been barred for visitors.
