3000kg drugs worth Rs 21,000 crore were headed for Delhi from Mundra Port

The recovery of 3000kg heroin from two containers at Adani Group's Mundra Port is being touted as the single largest seizure of drugs in the country. The containers, which were shipped from Bandar Abbas Port in Iran, were declared as semi-processed Talc stones.

The massive haul of drugs worth an estimated Rs 21,000 crore, which was seized from Mundra Port in Gujarat's Kutch on September 15, was headed for Delhi and not Vijayawada as claimed by some media reports.

Clarifying on media reports which claimed that the 3000 Kilogram shipment of heroin which was reportedly smuggled into India from Afghanistan, the Vijayawada Police Commissioner B Sreenivasulu said that the only link with the city was the GST registration and Import and Export license used to receive the consignment. 

The Police Commissioner informed that a GST registration had been obtained in August 2020 by a Chennai resident named Govindaraju Durga Purna Vaishali using an address in Vijayawada's Gadiyaranvari Street. 

Investigations revealed that the address belonged to a building owned by Vaishali's mother Govindaraju Taraka. 

The officer further disclosed that the Vaishali had procured the Import and Export license from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and that so far, no activity except using the Vijayawada address for obtaining the licenses had come to their notice.

Meanwhile, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials suspect a wider network of individuals behind the operation. Raids are reportedly underway in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Chennai in this case. Sources said that multiple suspects, including Afghan nationals, have been picked up for questioning.

The recovery of the drugs from two containers at Adani Group's Mundra Port is being touted as the single largest seizure of drugs in the country. The containers, which were shipped from Bandar Abbas Port in Iran, were declared as semi-processed Talc stones.

The drugs, which were reportedly exported by a Kandhar-based company in two containers, were layered between the talc to avoid suspicion and scrutiny. According to officials, the heroin seized was found to be of very high quality by forensic experts.