Zubair Derakhshandeh, an accused arrested in connection with the seizure of 2,500 kg of methamphetamine from a ship in Indian waters last week, was on Monday remanded to judicial custody by the first class magistrate court at Mattancherry. The accused, suspected to be of Pakistani origin, was taken into custody during the seizure, claimed to be the biggest drug seizure by any enforcement agency in the country in terms of monetary value, which was carried out by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and was jointly executed by the Indian Navy. , The operation was carried out as part of Operation Samudragupta launched in January last year with the aim of making the Indian Ocean Region free of narcotics. The NCB may seek the accused’s custody for further investigation in the coming days as the enforcement agency is looking for more leads.
The NCB has already confirmed that the boat originated from the Iran-Pakistan belt and the consignment was meant for destinations other than India including Sri Lanka and Maldives. The agency also has doubts whether the drug was meant for metro cities in India such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi. This aspect will also be probed along with the possible involvement of Indians in the smuggling network and local links of the smugglers.
Reportedly, NCB also had information about more ships smuggling drugs but their whereabouts are unknown. According to NCB sources, the mother ship found with the drugs was almost submerged by the time the Indian Navy got in touch and the people on board had escaped in a speed boat. However, it is not yet clear how the ship sank.