A total of 21kg heroin seized in Thoothukudi; six arrested – The Hindu

A police special team has seized 21kg heroin, worth about 21 crore in the international market, and arrested six persons in this connection.

According to Superintendent of Police S. Jayakumar, a police special team, which was monitoring Tooveypuram area on Tuesday night following information about drug smuggling, picked-up one Ansar Ali, 26, of Thoothukudi while he was moving around in suspicious manner near Tooveypuram Park. When the police frisked him, it was found that he was carrying a few packets with white powder, suspected to be heroin.

Based on the information provided by him, the police also nabbed his associates Marimuthu, 26, and Imran Khan, 27, also from Thoothukudi, from whom the police recovered a few more packets with white powder, totally weighing about 162gm.

When we grilled the trio, it led to the arrest of three more persons, all fishermen, who had kept 21kg heroin in a hideout in Tharuvaikulam near Thoothukudi, in the early hours of Wednesday, Mr. Jayakumar said.

During investigation, the police found that the arrested fishermen found a parcel floating when they were fishing near Minicoy Islands about ten months ago. On finding the parcel containing heroin, which might have been dumped into the sea by the drug smugglers on seeing the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy patrolling, the fishermen had brought it to Thoothukudi to be sold to the persons who were in need of the drug.

Since the patrolling Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy used to check the fishing boats in the high seas for drugs and other banned articles, the smugglers might have dropped the parcel into the sea on seeing the patrol ships nearing their boats, Mr. Jayakumar said.

Without knowing the value of the drug, which costs about 1 crore a kilo in the international market they had sold it for 1.50 lakh per kg. While the other crew in the mechanised fishing boat have confirmed that they had retrieved the mysterious packet from the sea and were unaware of the material packed in it, the three fishermen under the police custody now are suspected to have sold the heroin to Ansar Ali and others.

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A total of 21kg heroin seized in Thoothukudi; six arrested - The Hindu