Gujarat ATS nabs three more persons with heroin worth Rs 120 crore

The Gujarat ATS on Wednesday said it has nabbed three persons and seized 24 kg of Pakistan-origin heroin worth Rs 120 crore in global market from Devbhumi Dwarka district of the state

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Wednesday said it has nabbed three persons and seized 24 kg of Pakistan-origin heroin worth Rs 120 crore in global market from Devbhumi Dwarka district of the state, days after the arrest of three others from Morbi district with heroin worth Rs 600 crore.

Mukhtar Hussain Rao, one of the three accused held by the ATS on November 14 from Morbi, had confessed during his remand that he had hidden 24 kg of heroin inside a house at Navadra village in Kalyanpur taluka of Devbhumi Dwarka district, the ATS said in a release.

An ATS team reached the spot with Mukhtar on Wednesday and recovered the narcotics worth Rs 120 crore from the house, it said.

Further questioning of Mukhtar and two other accused - Samsuddin Saiyad and Ghulam Hussain Bhagad - had revealed that 12 kg of heroin, which was part of the main consignment delivered to the accused by Pakistani smugglers in the high seas, was delivered to one Iqbal Qadri aka Iqbal Bhangariya, the ATS added.

Later, Qadri had delivered the drugs to Ankit Jhakar and Arvind Yadav, both working for dreaded drug mafia Bhola Shooter aka Bharat Bhushan Sharma, who is currently in Punjab jail and running the drug racket through his men, it said.

Upon learning that Iqbal, a resident of coastal town of Salaya in Devbhumi Dwarka district, had arranged a meeting in Rajasthan with Bhola's henchmen to plan the next delivery of drugs, the ATS kept a watch at a place in Sirohi district and nabbed both Iqbal and Yadav, a resident if Sri Ganganagar of the neighbouring district, the release said.

The ATS also nabbed one Hussain Rao from Jodia town of Jamnagar, as he was involved in transfering the heroin from Salaya to Navadra in his car at the behest of other accused held earlier, it added.