DRUGS WORTH RS 100 CR SEIZED FROM DELHI’S SHAHEEN BAGH

Four accused including two Afghan nationals were arrested from Delhi’s Bhogal area in connection with a case where the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Delhi Unit on Thursday busted an India-Afghanistan drug syndicate and recovered 50 kilograms of heroin worth over Rs 100 crore from a residential flat in southeast Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, Shaheen Bagh.

“NCB Delhi zone seized 50 kg high-quality heroin, 47 kg suspected narcotics, Rs 30 lakhs drug money in cash counting machines and other incriminating materials from a residential premise in Jamia Nagar, Shaheen Bagh on April 27,” Deputy Director General (DDG) Operations of NCB, Sanjay Singh said. The probe so far has revealed that an Indo-Afghan syndicate was based in Delhi and has expertise in manufacturing and adulterating heroin locally, Singh said.

One of the investigators said the “kingpin” of the syndicate was based in Dubai and the agency was probing the case further, including certain links with Pakistan-based narcotics operatives.

“The man who was arrested is an Indian national, had taken the house on rent in Delhi where the drugs and cash have been recovered,” the officer added.

Singh said the drugs were kept in backpacks and jute bags and wrapped in packets of e-commerce companies.

“This is one of the biggest narcotics seizures in Delhi, that too from a residential area, in the recent past. Another 47 kg of ‘suspected’ narcotics were also seized from the premises and has been sent to a laboratory for testing,” Singh said.

Officials said that the seized heroin originated from Afghanistan and the cash found was suspected to have been channelled through hawala. The NCB also seized cash-counting machines and some other “incriminating” material from the premises, officials said.

The NCB further said that the India-Afghanistan syndicates smuggle goods to India through maritime as well as land-border routes and heroin is smuggled with legitimate goods and cargo.

“The contraband is subsequently extracted from these goods by the Indian members of the syndicates with the help of some Afghan nationals,” one of the officers said.

NCB officials also said that their teams were carrying out raids to bust the entire network and the traffickers were linked to operatives based in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.