Rs 1.5 Crore Worth Charas Found on Gujarat Beach, Suspected Drug Smuggling

Police recovered three packets of charas worth Rs 1.5 crore on Hazira beach, Gujarat. Each packet contained 1 kg charas, valued at Rs 50 lakh per kg. This recovery follows a similar find in Udvada village. Such packets are commonly washed ashore, dumped by smugglers to evade capture.

Police on Tuesday recovered three packets of charas (hashish) worth Rs 1.5 crore found lying on the beach near Hazira village on the outskirts of Gujarat's Surat city, said an official.

Each packet contained 1 kg charas and the value of 1,000 grams of the contraband in the international market was Rs 50 lakh, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Operations Group, Rajdeepsinh Nakum.

The recovery of the contraband worth Rs 1.5 crore came a day after 10 unclaimed packets of charas, having similar packaging, were recovered at the coast of Udvada village in Gujarat's Valsad district, said Nakum.

''After being alerted by local residents about some unclaimed packets lying on the beach near Hazira, the Surat police rushed to the spot and seized three packets, each having nearly 1 kg of narcotics. Preliminary probe revealed packets contained charas. A thorough search of the coastal area was underway,'' he informed.

Earlier last year, the DCP said, a fisherman had found 13 packets of high purity Afghan charas worth Rs 6.5 crore on the sea shore near Hazira, which houses a mega port.

Notably, unclaimed packets having narcotics substances have been found off the coast of Kutch district by the Border Security Force (BSF) and the local police at regular intervals over the last two years.

In the past, investigations by the BSF and other authorities had established that such packets, found at regular intervals off the Gujarat coast, got washed ashore after they were dumped in the sea by drug smugglers to avoid getting caught.

(With inputs from agencies.)