KOCHI: Arrested Pakistani national Zubair admitted to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) that the sunken 'mothership' contained drugs manufactured in labs at Jiwani in Pakistan's Balochistan province. The drugs and smuggling systems belong to the Haji Salim Network, Pakistan's notorious drug trafficking ring. He said that there were six Pakistanis with him in the mothership. NCB is verifying the information received from him regarding drug trafficking. Zubair will be produced in court today. He is being interrogated. He speaks Urdu mostly but knows English as well.

NCB sources told Kerala Kaumudi that Zubair had smuggled drugs for Haji Salim's network earlier as well and at that time he had delivered drugs to Sri Lanka and Maldives. The navy and the coastguard are continuing to investigate about the people who escaped in a speedboat after the sinking of the unnamed mothership. They are hinted to be hiding in the uninhabited islands of Lakshadweep.

There were two speedboats in the mothership. Zubair was taken into custody after following one of these boats. The boat he used to escape was also seized. The GPS tracker from the sinking mothership is being checked.

2525 kg of methamphetamine was seized from Indian waters four days ago by the Navy and NCB as part of "Operation Samudragupta". The mothership came under the navy's eye while sailing through the Indian territorial waters from Iran's Chabahar port.

Not 15,000, but 25,000 crores

The NCB said that the actual value of the drugs seized in Operation Samudragupta was Rs 25,000 crore. The final price was determined after the inspection of the drug delivered at Kochi port was completed yesterday evening. The initial estimate was 15,000 crores, but the price difference was huge because the variety of methamphetamine was of a higher grade. The drugs were in 2,800 boxes of one kilogram each and were waterproofed in three layers. The boxes were packed in 134 sacks bearing the names of various basmati rice companies in Pakistan.

Southern Route

Drugs supplied from Pakistan depart from Makran and Chabahar ports on motherships for India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives. The method involves transferring the drugs to small boats on the open sea.