IRANIAN DRUG SMUGGLERS NABBED IN OPERATION OFF GUJARAT COAST
28, Mar 2019
Prelims level : Polity / Governance – Internal Security
Mains level : GS II - Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.
- Iranian nationals who were smuggling heroin were nabbed in a sensational mid-sea operation jointly conducted by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) off the Gujarat coast. Their boat was intercepted by the Indian agencies off Porbandar Coast in the Arabian Sea and 100 kg of heroine worth around Rs. 500 crores were recovered was sent by a Pakistani national Hamid Malek.
- It was loaded off the Gwadar port of Pakistan.
Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)
- One of Asia’s two main opium-producing areas.
- It is an area of around 950,000 square kilometres (367,000 sq mi) that overlaps the mountains of three countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.
- Most of the world’s heroin came from the Golden Triangle until the early 21st century when Afghanistan became the world’s largest producer.
- The Golden Triangle designates the confluence of the Ruak River and the Mekong River, since the term has been
- appropriated by the Thai tourist industry to describe the nearby border tripoint of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
Golden Crescent
- The Golden Crescent is the name given to one of Asia’s two principal areas of illicit opium production (with the other being the Golden Triangle), located at the crossroads of Central, South, and Western Asia.
- This space overlaps three nations, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, whose mountainous peripheries define the crescent.
Anti – Terrorist Squard:
- The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is a special police force in several states of India including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.
- ATS was founded in Maharashtra in 1990 by then Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police Aftab Ahmed Khan popularly known as A.A. Khan.
- He was inspired by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Weapons & Tactics (SWAT) teams methods to combat modern-day terrorism. Since its formation in 1990, ATS’s officers have won 23 gallantry awards. The Mumbai ATS was involved in the 26 November 2008 hostage rescue operations in multiple locations in Mumbai, Maharashtra including the 5 star hotels Taj and Oberoi Trident. After the attacks, it also started appointing children (ages above 12) as officers of ATC, particularly in Mumbai, which were given training as undercover.