THE TWO RUST-BROWN SHIPPING containers from Iran were among thousands stacked in neat rows like toy bricks in India’s largest sea port, Mundra. For the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials who had zeroed in on the shipment, these 20feetlong containers originat ing in Iran’s Bandar Abbas port and dispatched to Gujarat’s arid Kutch district, were like two needles in a very giant haystack. The port receives 5.6 million such containers each year. However, it was the consignor that piqued the sleuths’ interest—Hasan Husain Ltd, a firm based in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. The shipment of talc stones, a clay mineral used as raw material for cosmetics, was headed for Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh and meant for a Chennaibased couple, Machavaram Sudhakar and his wife Vaisali. When DRI sleuths opened the containers on September 15, they spotted hundreds of white synthetic bags, each large enough to seat an adult. Beneath the looselypacked talc stones was 3.2 tonne of pure Afghan heroin. It was one of India’s largest drug hauls. The quantity was, as one government official put it, enough to drug Mumbai’s 12 million citizens. The drugs would have sold on the streets of Mumbai for some Rs 3,000 crore. With the Mundra seizures, the total heroin haul this year has crossed six tonne, double the 3.2 tonne and 3.8 tonne seized in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
This story is from the October 18, 2021 edition of India Today.
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This story is from the October 18, 2021 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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