In the biggest-ever haul of contraband in the Capital, 602 kg of drugs worth ?5,820 crore has been recovered from south-west Delhi’s Mahipalpur Extension, the police said on Wednesday.
The drugs — 562 kg of cocaine (estimated to be worth ?5,620 crore in the international market) and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana (valued at ?200 crore) — were seized in an operation conducted by the Special Cell a day earlier. The police have arrested four persons — Tushar Goyal, 40, Himanshu Kumar, 27, Aurangzeb Siddiqui, 23, and Bharat Kumar Jain, 48 — in the case so far.
A senior officer of the Special Cell, which worked on the case for the past two months, said they are exploring all possible angles in their investigation, including that of “narco-terror”.
The officer added that cocaine was smuggled into Delhi by road from various States and that marijuana was brought in through the aerial route from Phuket, Thailand. The officer also said that the accused traded in cryptocurrency to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies.
The police are trying to find the route that was taken to smuggle such a huge quantity of cocaine into the country.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P.S. Kushwah termed the drug bust “a big breakthrough in our efforts to disrupt and dismantle organised crime syndicates involved in drug trafficking”.
“The kingpin of the drug cartel has been running his operations in India from a West Asian country,” Mr. Kushwah said, adding that they are working to arrest all the suspects in the case.
A case has been registered under the relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The raid
A senior officer said they received a tip-off from a Central agency in August about a man named Tushar Goyal stashing drugs at his godown in Mahipalpur Extension. After zeroing in on the suspect, the Special Cell deployed 40 officers to monitor his activities 24x7.
The drugs were concealed on the top floor of a three-storey building. | Photo Credit: special arrangement
“We tracked his movements to identify everyone he met and dealt with. After nearly two months of constant surveillance, we felt we had gathered enough information. So, on October 1, we decided to carry out the raid,” said the officer.
The Special Cell subsequently nabbed Goyal and Jain. The latter had come from Mumbai to buy 15 kg of cocaine from Goyal at his three-storey godown. The police found the contraband concealed in plastic packets on the top floor. The building was used by Goyal’s father, who runs a publishing business, to store books, said the officer.
Mr. Kushwah said, “We did not expect to recover such a huge quantity of contraband. Cocaine, which sells for ?10 crore per kg in the international market, is usually traded in grams.”
Another officer said the cocaine had been smuggled into the city recently and was supposed to be trafficked to other parts of the country shortly. He added, “The amount of cocaine seized suggests that it may be replacing heroin, which is a much cheaper drug, as the more sought-after contraband. We will continue our crackdown against the smugglers.”
The police said Goyal graduated from a reputed university in 2003. After graduation, he looked after his father’s publication business. However, a few years later, he met the cartel’s mastermind in Dubai and joined it. Subsequently, he roped in Kumar, who used to work as a bouncer, and Siddiqui, who had come to Delhi looking for a job. He employed the latter as his driver.
Published - October 03, 2024 01:03 am IST
