Drugs Worth Rs 2,525 Crore Seized: It Is India’s Operation Samudragupta Vs Haji Salim

On May 13, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested Zubair Derakshshandeh, a Pakistani national on the charge that he supplied drugs to several countries as a member of the Haji Salim gang.

In a joint operation the NCB and Indian Navy arrested him in the international waters, off the coast of Kochi. Zubair was caught with 132 bags of suspected contraband, weight 2,525 kilograms. The agencies learnt that the haul contained "high-purity methamphetamine" worth Rs 2,500 crore. The NCB said that the methamphetamine was of the most superior quality they had come across in the illegal drug market.

The probe has found that a large vessel carrying the contraband had set out from the Iranian border. It was waiting for smaller boats to collect the drugs, following which the boats would sail into international waters.

According to investigations, Zubair is a resident of Balochistan and worked for a businessman, who had several ships and boats. The businessman is a close associates of Haji Salim who is high on the radar of Indian agencies. He is said to have replaced Dawood Ibrahim as the prime drug lord doing business in India and other countries.

Salim hails from Pakistan's Pansi and he last known location is Karachi officials added.

Salim has been the main supplier of drugs to India since 2015. All the major drug busts in India since the 2016 have had a Haji Salim stamp on it. Salim started off by handling the drug trade on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. However in recent years, he has expanded operations internationally.

Salim has extensively used the sea routes to traffic drugs. The NCB learnt about Salim after information was passed on by the National Security Council Secretariat.

Salim's name came up extensively after the Indian agencies launched 'Operation Samudragupta'to stop drug smuggling from Afghanistan and Pakistan.