Gujarat ATS nabs Afghan national with heroin worth Rs 2.5 cr in Delhi

Ahmedabad, Jul 5 (PTI) The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested an Afghan national, allegedly part of an international drug syndicate involved in smuggling heroin by sea route and transporting it to Delhi, an official said on Friday.

A team of the ATS on Thursday conducted a raid in the Bhogal area of Delhi and apprehended Mohammad Yasin Miya Sahib (27) with 460 gm of heroin worth Rs 2.5 crore, the official said.

As per a release, the ATS was investigating a case in which 8 kg of heroin was smuggled into India by sea and transported to a person in the Tilak Nagar area in Delhi in September 2023.

The probe revealed that an unidentified Nigerian and Afghan national, Sahib, were part of that drug cartel, it said.

Sahib, a native of Jalalabad in Afghanistan, has said he had bought 4 kg of heroin from a Nigerian in Tilak Nagar around eight months ago and sold 3.5 kg of the contraband, the release said.

The accused, who lived in Greater Noida, came to Bhogal to deliver the remaining 460 gm to a customer as directed by the Nigerian, it stated.

Sahib had arrived in India in 2017 on a medical visa and started working as a translator for Afghan nationals who came to Delhi for treatment, the release said.

His visa expired two years ago, and he has applied to UNHCR for a refugee card, it said.

In March, the ATS had arrested three relatives of absconding drug dealer Isa Hussain Rao, including his wife and son, for allegedly helping him smuggle 8 kg of heroin into the country through the sea route and delivering the contraband to a foreigner in Delhi in October last year.

Rao, a native of Jodia village of Jamnagar district, has been absconding since 2021 and is currently based in an African country. He was one of the main accused in the seizure of heroin worth Rs 600 crore by the Gujarat ATS in Morbi district in 2021.

Rao's wife Tahira and son Arbaz were among those arrested.

One kg of heroin is worth nearly Rs 5 crore in the international market.

The ATS probe had revealed that Rao's Pakistan-based associates had sent 120 kg of heroin worth Rs 600 crore by sea route and then moved to Morbi after it landed at the Salaya port near Jamnagar.

Using the same modus operandi, the ATS learnt that Rao had sent 8 kg of heroin in October last year with the help of his Pakistan-based drug trafficker, Murtaza, the agency said in the release.

It said a Gujarat-registered boat took delivery of the contraband in international waters near the Oman coast from Murtaza, who was on board another vessel.

The boat delivered the heroin on the coast near Veraval harbour on October 16. The contraband, as directed by Rao, first reached Abu Road in neighbouring Rajasthan by road, and it was then delivered to a foreign national in the Tilak Nagar area of Delhi, it said.

The ATS said Rao's wife Tahira, who lives in Jodia village, their daughter Masuma, son Arbaz and Masuma's fiancé Rizwan Taiyab were involved in taking the delivery at Veraval and transporting the consignment to Delhi. PTI PJT PD ARU