NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, SEPT 18
Three men were arrested in Kutch district and five kg of charas, part of dumped contraband which is regularly washing ashore along the coast, was seized from them on Friday, the police said.
One of the accused had found five packets of charas a month ago along the coast near Jakhau, said inspector AR Zala of the Special Operations Group, Kutch-West Police.
The charas found with them on Friday was worth Rs 7.69 lakh in international markets, he said.
The accused were identified as Ramji Koli, a resident of Abdasa, Naresh Shah, a resident of Gandhidham, and Praful Bariya from Mundra.
The Coast Guard, Border Security Force, local police, and Customs have recovered over 1,000 packets of charas on the Kutch coast in the last one year.
Drug traffickers are suspected to have dumped this huge cache of drugs into the Arabian Sea to evade arrest.
“Koli, who is a fisherman, found five packets of charas, each weighing one kg, near Jakhau. Instead of informing the police, he contacted Shah, a land broker, in an attempt to sell the drugs,” the police officer said.
Shah tried to find a customer with the help of Bariya. The SOG got wind of it and arrested the trio at Mundra by using a decoy customer, the officer said.
