Stavan Desai/Financial Express

Mumbai, June 21: In what is the largest cocaine haul by the Mumbai police, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) seized contraband weighing over 1 kg and worth Rs 1 crore on Monday from two persons who it suspects are local conduits of an international drug cartel that may even be linked to terror outfits.

The two were arrested from south Mumbai after ATS received specific information about them last month and had been tailing them ever since. The two were nabbed after they brought in the contraband and were in the process of hiding it before distributing smaller consignments to peddlers.   
 
According to high-level sources in the ATS, it has now sent out teams to a north Indian city to nab two Nigerian nationals who are also involved. The ATS, however, is keeping quite about the seizure and the arrests— it is not even disclosing the identities of those held.

ATS chief joint commissioner of police K P Raghuvanshi, who got the first and only tip-off in the case, refused to elaborate as investigations are in progress.

ATS sources revealed the cocaine seized is of very high quality and it has been examined by forensic experts. “It is of very good quality and would have a fetched a high price in the market,” said an official involved in the investigations.

This the largest ever one-time seizure of cocaine made by the Mumbai police. Last year, a team of the Narcotic Control Bureau from Delhi had seized 200 kg of cocaine from the Mumbai coast.