This story is from July 30, 2021

Kutch man wanted in Rs 2,500-crore heroin cases nabbed

A Kutch man wanted in four cases for smuggling a total of 530kg of heroin, worth Rs 2,500 crore, into India from Pakistan, was arrested by Gujarat ATS at the Delhi airport on Thursday, officials said.
Kutch man wanted in Rs 2,500-crore heroin cases nabbed
Shahid Kasam Sumra
AHMEDABAD: A Kutch man wanted in four cases for smuggling a total of 530kg of heroin, worth Rs 2,500 crore, into India from Pakistan, was arrested by Gujarat ATS at the Delhi airport on Thursday, officials said.
Shahid Kasam Sumra, 35, a resident of Mandvi in Kutch district, was also allegedly involved in “narco-terrorism”, as he funded terror activities with the money acquired from the illegal drug trade, they said.

Sumra was nabbed by a team of the Anti-Terrorist Squad as soon as he arrived at the airport in the national capital from abroad, an ATS officer said.
The officer said he wanted to flee from Delhi airport but was nabbed before that.
Four cases were lodged against him between 2018 and 2021 in Gujarat and Punjab, following the seizure of 530kg of heroin worth around Rs 2,500 crore in that period from different places in the two states.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had taken over the investigation in three of those cases, while one case is with the Gujarat ATS.
The Gujarat ATS recently learned that Sumra was also involved in “narco-terrorism” as he gave money, acquired through the illegal drug trade, to those involved in terror activities.

He was on the run and had been hiding in various Gulf and African countries ever since his name surfaced when ATS seized 5kg of Pakistan-origin heroin at Salaya town in Gujarat’s Devbhoomi Dwarka district in August 2018.
An investigation later revealed that Sumra and other accused had smuggled in a total of 530kg of heroin worth over Rs 2,300 crore from Pakistan by sea and unloaded the consignment on the Mandvi coast in Gujarat in August 2018.
Later, Sumra and his aides sent the contraband to Punjab in trucks, the ATS officer said.
They sent 300kg in three trips to Punjab at the behest of one Simranjit Singh Sandhu, who was recently held by Interpol in Italy.
After some time, Sumra’s associates transported 200kg of heroin to Sandhu’s contacts at Amritsar in Punjab, it said.
From this consignment, the Punjab STF seized 188kg and 5kg in separate operations, the ATS said, adding that the NIA is now conducting a probe into these cases, and Sumra was also wanted in connection with these.
In April this year, the ATS and Indian Coast Guard intercepted a boat near the Gujarat coast and apprehended eight Pakistani nationals with 30kg of heroin, worth around Rs 150 crore.
It later came to light that the accused were planning to smuggle the drug into Gujarat at Sumra’s behest, the ATS officer said.
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