The coast guard fired at least three shots near the Andamans islands and intercepted a vessel that was carrying more than 370kg of methaqualone, a banned drug, on Friday evening.

Six men from Myanmar were arrested from the vessel, a coast guard officer said. The seized consignment is worth Rs 150 crore.

Methaqualone, also known as Qualudes, is a recreational drug that sells for nearly Rs 5,000 a gram, an officer of the Narcotics Control Bureau said.

Coast guard personnel on routine patrol on a Dornier aircraft spotted the vessel to the east of the Little Andaman island. The officers tried to get in touch with the vessel’s crew through very high frequency (VHF) international radio channels but got no response.

The Dornier then alerted coast guard ship Aruna Asaf Ali, which veered off its course to intercept the suspect vessel.

“The vessel was spotted around 125 nautical miles (231.5km) from the Little Andaman island,” the coast guard officer said.

A coast guard team armed with automatic weapons boarded the vessel and found it loaded with golden packets containing a white powder.

“A test with a drug kit on the vessel revealed that the white powder was methaqualone,” the officer said.