NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, NOV 29
The Gujarat Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) has nabbed two more people and seized heroin worth Rs 3.25 crore from a Nigerian national’s house in Delhi as part of its probe into the recovery of heroin worth Rs 730 crore from Morbi and two other districts recently, an official said on Monday.
The arrested accused were identified as Sarjerao Garad (56), a resident of Pune in Maharashtra, and Javid Sodha (32) of Sachana in Jamnagar district, an ATS release said.
Prior to them, the ATS had arrested 11 persons, including Nigerian national Michael Yugochukvu Christian, and recovered 146 kilograms of heroin worth Rs 730 crore.
“During his remand, Christian confessed he had acquired heroin from the main accused Isa Rao, who is absconding, in the past and hid some portion of the contraband in his house in Nilothi area of Delhi. An ATS team recovered 650 grams of heroin worth Rs 3.25crore from his home. Christian has claimed he used to pay money to Isa Rao’s gang through angadia,” it added.
As per the ATS, Garad is a peddler who used to take drugs from Rao’s men and deliver them to Christian and other Nigerian receivers by traveling in buses or trains, while Sodha was one of Rao’s gang members and was involved in hiding drugs at his residence and supplying it to other gang members as and when instructed by Rao.
Two weeks back, the ATS arrested three persons from Morbi district and seized 120 kg of heroin worth Rs 600 crore, and then nabbed four others and recovered 24 kg of heroin worth Rs 120 crore from a house in Navadra in Devbhumi Dwarka.
Later, the ATS recovered 2 kg of contraband worth Rs 10 crore from a house on the sea shore near Jamnagar city.
Its probe has revealed the seized heroin was part of a consignment which was delivered to Rao’s men, who went into the sea on a boat to take heroin from a Pakistani vessel off Jakhau coast in the Arabian Sea and then transported it to Morbi and other places, said the release.
