Source of drugs found in Gujarat’s 3 districts untraced, police suspect 15 Iranians held

Police say all packets were similar with the substance packed in wrappers of Nabob, a coffee brand of Canada. A forensic analysis later confirmed that the substance was charas, says Manoharsinh Jadeja, superintendent of police
(SP) of Gir Somnath.

The packets started getting washed ashore around a week after the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) intercepted two Iranian boats with 15 crew members on board off Porbandar coast on July 23. The 15 crew members — all Iranian nationals, were brought to the Coast Guard jetty in Porbandar even as nothing suspicious was found on board the two fishing trawlers.

“After the discovery along Junagadh coast, our teams scanned the 100-kilometre coastline of Gir Somnath every day after high tides. Local fishermen also joined and we seized more than 300 kilograms of charas,” Jadeja says.

The drive to scan the coastline was led by Special Operations Group (SOG) of Gir Somnath police and a case under the
Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was registered with Somnath Marine police against unidentified persons.

“While no further discovery was made over the past week, we are investigating how the narcotics could have landed on Gir Somnath coast. We suspect that the Iranians caught off Porbandar last month could have dumped these packets into the sea before they were apprehended,” Jadeja says, adding there is no direct evidence as of now to link the arrests of the Iranian nationals and the discovery of narcotics.

Junagadh SP Ravi Teja Vasamsetty said that Junagadh police is also working on a similar theory. “Indications are there that they could have been thrown into the sea by the Iranians arrested by the Coast Guard on July 23 and were subsequently arrested by Porbandar police. It is also possible that someone else could have thrown the consignment into the sea after being chased by security agencies,” Vasamsetty said.

“We have sought details from the fisheries department as to who all were operating near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) around that time,” he added.
SL Vasava, police inspector of SOG of Gir Somnath, said that such discoveries are unusual on Gir Somnath coast.
“Generally, objects thrown at the IMBL off Kutch coast get washed ashore on Kutch coast and up to Okha coast in Devbhumi Dwarka. But the fact that packets were found as far south as Sutrapada coast in Gir Somnath suggests someone had dumped them off Porbandar coast,” Vasava said.

While Porbandar SP Ravi Mohan Saini could not be reached for a comment, sources said that Porbandar police are also working on the theory that the two incidents could be related. “The timing of the arrests of the Iranian nationals from Indian territorial waters and discovery of packets of charas make one think that the two incidents could be related. The GPS devices of the Iranian fishing trawlers and a satellite phone seized from the Iranian nationals could be holding some clues,” said sources.

In Devbhumi Dwarka also, police discovered two packets with suspected narcotics packed in wrappers of coffee, however, the labels are different. Police say prima facie, those packets don’t appear to be related to consignm-ents found in other three districts.