Coast Guard seizes 5,500 kg narcotics worth Rs27,500 cr from Myanmarese boat

In its biggest ever drug haul, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Monday seized a massive 5,500 kg (5.5 tonnes) of synthetic narcotic substance Methamphetamine from a Myanmarese fishing boat `Soe Wai Yan Htoo’, off the eastern coast.

The synthetic narcotics is estimated to cost a minimum of Rs27,500 crore ($2.5 billion), and is the biggest ever narcotics catch in India’s history.

The seizure followed heightened vigil off India's eastern coast in the wake of incidents of poaching by Myanmarese/Rohingya fishing vessels in the Andaman seas, within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. 

The Rs27,500 crore figure is arrived at a conservative estimate of Rs5 crore per kg of Meth, while some estimates put the value at Rs10 crore per kg, which could double the value of the catch.

The foreign fishing boat was first spotted by ICG's Dornier-228 maritime patrol aircraft, following which the Navy-ICG Joint Operation Centre (JOC) deployed an ICG fast patrol vessel, Aruna Asaf Ali, from Sri Vijaya Puram (formerly Port Blair) to intercept the suspicious boat.

The ICG patrol vessel managed to apprehend the Myanmarese boat braving stormy weather in the Bay of Bengal and shadowing it for several hours, till early morning on Sunday. 

The boat was apprehended some eight nautical miles (15 km) off Barren Island in Indian territorial waters around 6:30 am IST on, Sunday. 

Subsequent searches and interrogations revealed the six-member crew were Myanmarese nationals, while the rummaging of the boat detected a massive quantity of a white crystalline compound and a portable satellite phone.