A Coast Guard narcotics seizure in the Arabian Sea has netted around 526 kg of heroin and methamphetamine, valued at over Rs 3,000 crore, from an Iranian dhow intercepted west of Lakshadweep. Five Pakistani nationals who were running the vessel have been apprehended.

The dhow, its crew and the drugs have been escorted to Mumbai.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) carried out the interdiction on 25 September in a joint operation with the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Gujarat, acting on intelligence inputs. The force announced the seizure in New Delhi on Tuesday.

How the Iranian dhow was caught

The operation began with actionable intelligence, the Coast Guard said. ICG ships and aircraft then kept up surveillance over the area from sea and air. Once the dhow was detected, it was tracked without a break. A hot pursuit followed. The chase ended with an ICG boarding team stopping the vessel and climbing on board.

A dhow is a traditional wooden vessel, now usually fitted with an engine, that has worked the trade routes between the Gulf, the Makran coast and western India for centuries. It looks like thousands of other fishing and cargo boats at sea.

Watching that traffic from the air is a job the force plans to expand. The Defence Ministry is seeking ten medium altitude long endurance drones for the Coast Guard, which would give it satellite-linked surveillance far beyond the coastline. Its current aerial watch is flown by Dornier aircraft and helicopters.

526 kg of heroin and methamphetamine recovered

The Coast Guard narcotics seizure was a mix of heroin and methamphetamine. The ICG gave a combined weight of around 526 kg and put the value at over Rs 3,000 crore in international markets.

Heroin is made from the opium poppy. Methamphetamine is different. It is a synthetic drug produced in laboratories, and the Coast Guard said stopping such substances at sea keeps them from ever reaching the mainland. The ICG described the catch as a blow to the finances of foreign smuggling syndicates operating across the Arabian Sea.

Multi-agency probe in Mumbai

In Mumbai, the five crew members will be questioned jointly by the agencies involved. The case will then move to multi-agency investigation and prosecution, the ICG said.

Part of the Nasha Mukt Bharat drive

The Coast Guard has tied the operation to the Union government's Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, the national campaign against drug abuse launched on 15 August 2020 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The force said it would keep up its maritime surveillance to secure India's sea borders, break up drug syndicates and shield young Indians from narcotics.

The interdiction off Lakshadweep was one of two major ICG operations in a matter of days. On 27 September, on the east coast, an ICG damage control team boarded a flooding chemical tanker off Paradip in the MT Seagull 9 rescue, stabilising the vessel with its 23 crew on board. Separately, ICG Ship Shaunak sailed from Chennai to Perth this month carrying observers from Quad partners under the Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission.

Coast Guard narcotics seizure tops a three-year tally

The Coast Guard and the Gujarat ATS have worked together on drug cases at sea for years.

In March 2023, acting on an ATS input, ICG ships Meera Behn and Abheek stopped an Iranian boat with five crew around 340 km off Okha after it tried to evade them. It was carrying 61 kg of heroin worth Rs 425 crore. A year later, in March 2024, ICG ships carrying NCB and ATS teams chased down a Pakistani boat off the Gujarat coast and recovered 80 kg of drugs worth about Rs 480 crore. That was the tenth such joint apprehension in three years, and it took the total seized in those operations to 517 kg, worth about Rs 3,135 crore, according to reports at the time.

The dhow intercepted on 25 September was carrying more than that entire three-year total on its own.