Indian authorities have seized 137 kg of crystal methamphetamine that was meant to be smuggled to Sri Lanka by sea, and arrested four people in Tamil Nadu, according to India’s Ministry of Finance.
Officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) carried out the operation in a coastal village in Nagapattinam district on 16 and 17 October. They acted on specific intelligence that a large consignment had been brought to the village for storage before onward smuggling to Sri Lanka.
The ministry said the drugs were to be moved by a mid-sea transfer. It put the value of the seizure above Indian Rs. 100 crore on the illegal market.
During the search, officers recovered six duffel bags holding 27 silver-foil packets, each weighing about 5 kg. The packets contained a white crystalline substance suspected to be high-purity methamphetamine.
A simultaneous search at the premises of the suspected organiser turned up Indian Rs. 10 lakh in cash, which the officers believe came from drug sales. Two four-wheel vehicles and a motorcycle suspected of being used to transport the drugs were also seized.
The four people were arrested under India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and remanded to judicial custody. According to the ministry, the operation uncovered a network allegedly involved in organising the coastal smuggling, transport, storage and logistics of the consignment.
Background
Nagapattinam lies on the Tamil Nadu coast facing Sri Lanka across the Palk Strait and the Bay of Bengal. The ministry described the seizure as among the largest narcotics recoveries in Tamil Nadu’s coastal region in recent years. It said the operation formed part of continuing efforts to prevent India’s coastline from being used for international drug trafficking.
Sri Lankan authorities have also reported sea-borne narcotics cases in recent weeks. The Sri Lanka Navy said on Monday that it had handed five suspects and a multi-day fishing trawler to the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) after an operation in the southern seas on 13 October, on suspicion of narcotics smuggling.
What it means
The Indian seizure means the consignment did not reach Sri Lanka. A shipment of 137 kg is large, and the amount that never entered the local market cannot be measured from the facts released so far.
The case underlines that smuggling networks plan routes by sea, with drugs passed between boats away from the shore. In such cases, Indian and Sri Lankan agencies rely on intelligence from the other side and on coastal patrols. Neither the Indian ministry nor the Sri Lankan authorities have said whether any person in Sri Lanka has been identified in connection with this consignment.
The four suspects are in judicial custody in India while investigations continue.
