20 Kg Charas Seized Off Gujarat's Kutch Coast

Gujarat police seized 20 kg of charas worth lakhs from an island off the Kutch coast, intensifying patrols due to increased drug washing ashore.

Police recovered 20 packets of charas, each weighing one kilogram, from an island off the Jakhau port in Gujarat's Kutch district on Wednesday, officials said.

The packets were found during round-the-clock coastal patrolling being carried out jointly by the Special Operations Group (SOG) and Jakhau Marine Police near Saiyad Suleman Pir island, an official release by the Kutch-West police said.

Details of the Drug Seizure

Each packet weighed one kilogram of charas, and this quality of the contraband fetches around Rs 2.5 lakh per kilogram in the international market, the officials said.

Police said intensified patrolling was launched along the Kutch coastline following recent weather conditions and sea currents that caused suspicious packets to wash ashore in coastal areas.

Increased Coastal Patrolling

As part of the exercise, police teams have been carrying out patrolling on camels, horses, motorcycles, in boats and on foot across the coastal belt since May 2.

Officials said that with the latest seizure, a total of 82 unclaimed charas packets worth Rs 2.05 crore have been recovered from different coastal locations in Kutch-West police division of the Kutch district since May 2.

Past Smuggling Methods

The recoveries were made from several places, including Mandvi, Pingleshwar coast near Jakhau, Medi-Sugar creek area, Khidrat island, Saiyad Suleman Pir island, and the Khuda-Suthri coastal stretch, police said.

Further investigation is underway, officials added.

In the past, investigations by authorities had established that such packets, found at regular intervals off Kutch coast, had washed ashore after they were dumped in the sea by smugglers to avoid getting caught.