India captures $2.7bn of Afghan heroin

According to Indian officials in touch with Reuters, India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized nearly $2.7 billion worth of Afghan heroin last Tuesday. 

of heroin, making it one of the largest drug seizures in Indian history.

The seizure occurred at western Gujarat’s Mundra Port after authorities received word that the shipment might contain narcotics.

Few traffickers and plenty of heroin

The nearly 3-ton haul only resulted in two arrests. The two individuals implicated in the scheme are described as a couple who sought an import-export license before being arrested.

The license was apparently based on a house address in Vijayawada, police in Vijayawada said in a statement on Monday. They said that the heroin shipments were heading for Delhi before they were seized.

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Officials also told Reuters, “Investigation conducted so far has also revealed the involvement of Afghan nationals, who are under investigation.”

Afghanistan is currently home to the world’s largest clandestine opioid operation. The poppy fields in the country yield 80 to 90 percent of the world’s opium on average.

The Taliban have stated that the drug trade will be banned since assuming power in Afghanistan. Despite this, they have given no practical answer as to how that will actually happen.

Opioids in India

According to India’s Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, around 2.1 percent of the nation’s citizens uses or has used opium. When adjusted to India’s current population, this amounts to almost 30 million individuals.

Of this number, around 1.14 percent use heroin as their preferred opioid. The second most common form is pharmaceutical opioids, which around 0.96 percent of Indians use or have used.

With numbers like this it’s obvious that India has its own opioid crisis just like the one in the U.S. The minimum jail sentence for drug traffickers of this scale in India is ten years, which can extend all the way to capital punishment depending on the severity of the offense.

In 2017, a similar heroin seizure was also made in Gujarat. Indian Coast Guard spokesman Commandant R. K. Singh told CNN after that bust that “This is the biggest catch of narcotics in the present times.”

While that was “the biggest catch” during that time, the 2017 seizure was only about half the size of the most recent one.