ICG seizes Pakistani fishing boat carrying 194 packets of narcotics

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Tuesday seized a Pakistani fishing boat with six crew members aboard, sailing in the Indian waters off the International Maritime boundary line (IMBL) in the Arabian Sea.

During the search,194 packets of suspected narcotics were recovered from the boat.

The ICG on Sunday had received a tip-off about a suspected vessel likely to be engaged in drug trafficking. A similar input was received on the following day from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).

After the two intelligence inputs, the ICG deployed two interceptor boats C-437 and C-408 from Gujarat's Jakhua and Okho coasts, and a Dornier aircraft from the Porbandar coast to augment the search. The ICG Ship 'Arinjay', which was on patrol off Indo-Pak IMBL, was also alerted about the suspicious vessel.

Following this, on Monday night, a fishing boat observed to be suspicious was shadowed by the Coast Guard Ships.

In the wee hours of Tuesday, this suspicious vessel crossed the IMBL towards Indian side and started moving towards Jakhua coast. The vessel was kept under surveillance and intercepted at around 9:15, about eight nautical miles inside the Indian waters.

The vessel was found to be a Pakistani fishing boat 'Al Madina', registered at Karachi. It was escorted to Jakhua harbour for detailed investigation and rummaging.

In a similar operation earlier this year, the ICG, in a joint operation with Anti-terrorist Squad (ATS) had seized about 100 kilograms of Heroin from a Pakistani boat off the east coast of Gujarat. Nine Iranian nationals were apprehended from the boat.