Rs 5 lakh per visit and a secret code: how Pak National sailed to India with a mother ship full of drugs

Zubair was seized with 132 bags containing suspected contraband. Weighing 2,525kg, the loot contained “high-purity methamphetamine” worth around Rs 25,000 crore. An NCB official commented that it was the highest “superior grade” methamphetamine they had ever found on the illegal drug market.

Investigations have revealed that the mother ship, a large ship carrying large amounts of drugs, left the Iranian border and was waiting for some small boats to receive the shipment after arriving near Kochi. Mother ships only sail in international waters. (express photo)

An official said: “Zubair, a native of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, worked for a businessman who has several mother ships and ships. The businessman is a close associate of Salim and they asked Zubair to deliver this shipment in India. After arriving in India, he was told that some people would come on boats and they would share a code with him. He was asked to deliver the shipment to them after that. They would then supply the drugs in India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.”

Salim, the official said, is from Pakistan’s Pasni and according to intelligence data his last known location was Karachi.

“He is one of the biggest drug traffickers in the region. He obtained illicit drugs from Afghanistan and processed them in his laboratories, operating clandestinely in the Balochistan region. The processed drugs—heroin and methamphetamine—were trafficked from these laboratories to different parts of the world via sea routes in large quantities. Each shipment used to weigh around 1,500-2,500 kg. Drugs processed in Salim laboratories are usually marked with marks such as ‘555’, ‘999’, ‘Flying Horse’ and ‘Scorpion’,” an official added.

The NCB official said that Haji Salim would source illicit drugs from Afghanistan and process them in his laboratories, operating clandestinely in the Balochistan region. (express photo)

The operation

Recalling the May 13 operation, an NCB official said the office had received a tip about the mother ship. A trap set by NCB and Navy officers led them to a sinking ship in international waters and Zubair.

An official said: “After further developing the advisory, we captured the mother ship in international waters, off the coast of Kochi. It was damaged and sunk, but we managed to seize the drugs. We also recovered a GPS tracker. The drugs came from Jiwani, a port city in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, which is close to the border with Iran.

After arriving in India, Zubar, the arrested Pakistani citizen, was told that some people would come by boat and share a code with him. (express photo)

Investigations so far have revealed that the mother ship left the Iranian border and was waiting for small boats to receive the shipment after arriving near Kochi. The sources said that the motherships only sail in international waters.

The official added: “During some previous seizures of drug shipments by the cartel, we came across trafficked weapons and ammunition. We seized an AK-47 along with 1,000 live bullets and a 300 kg shipment of heroin.”

An NCB official said the seized methamphetamine, worth around Rs 25 billion, was the highest “superior quality” methamphetamine they had ever found on the illegal drug market. (express photo)

Although the NCB has stopped drug trafficking attempts by the Haji Salim cartel before, this is the first time an Indian agency has intercepted a mother ship. This seizure was part of ‘Operation Samudragupt’. Launched by the NCB in January 2022, the operation targets maritime drug trafficking originating in Afghanistan. This is the third major seizure made by the NCB related to maritime traffic via the southern route in the last 1.5 years.

NCB officials said the seizure of the large quantity of methamphetamine shows its growing demand in the drug market. “This substance is rapidly replacing ganja. Methamphetamine is cheaper than cocaine, which is why it is also known as poor man’s cocaine. There have been several cases of methamphetamine being seized in South India,” the sources said.