Police bust international drug racket, recover heroin worth ₹2,500 crore

Delhi Police on Saturday said they have busted an international drug cartel with the arrest of four men, including an Afghan national, over the past week and recovered 354 kg heroin, estimated to be worth over ₹2,500 crore, in raids in Delhi, Faridabad and Gurugram

Delhi Police on Saturday said they have busted an international drug cartel with the arrest of four men, including an Afghan national, over the past week and recovered 354 kg heroin, estimated to be worth over ₹2,500 crore, in raids in Delhi, Faridabad and Gurugram. Police traced the cartel’s operational footprint across Portugal, Afghanistan, Iran and India, with the drugs reaching Mumbai from Iran’s Chabahar port, and then moved to different parts of the country.

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Police said it is the force’s biggest drug haul in at least 10 years. In 2019, Delhi Police recovered 330 kg of heroin, which was said to be the force’s biggest seizure then.

A five-member police team were set on the trail of the massive drug operation after one of the gang members, Rizwan Ahmed, alias Rizwan Kashmiri, who was involved in peddling drugs in parts of Delhi, in addition to Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, was arrested from south Delhi with a kilogram of heroin.

“On July 5, a reliable source informed us that Rizwan was going to deliver contraband in Ghitorni area of south Delhi. We laid a trap and arrested him with a kilo of heroin. This initial recovery proved to be just the tip of the iceberg. When Rizwan was questioned at length, he revealed that he works under the command of an Afghan national named Isha Khan who recently left India and is now based in Afghanistan,” said deputy commissioner of police(special cell) Pramod Kushwah.

“Khan had directed Rizwan to contact Gurpreet Singh and Gurjot Singh, both residents of Punjab who operate the drug racket from Faridabad. We conducted a raid at their hideout in NSG Vihar co-op housing society, Sector-65, Faridabad and arrested them. Heroin weighing around 166 kg and 115 kg were found in two cars -- a Hyundai Verna and a Honda Amaze -- parked in the society,” added Kushwah.

A subsquent search in the house yielded 70 kg of heroin stashed in a secret cavity in one of the beds.

Police said the two men confessed that they were working under a man named Navpreet Singh, alias Nav, currently suspected to be hiding in Portugal. Gurpreet told police he had met Navpreet in Kapurthala Jail, Punjab.

Separately, another police team questioned Rizwan and learned that he was in touch with an Afghan national Hazrat Ali who was arrested from his house in Gurugram sector 39 with two kilograms of the drug.

Investigation so far has revealed that Gurpreet, Gurjot and Hazrat have been arrested in drug cases in the past and were out on bail.

How the drugs reach India

Explaining how the drug is smuggled into the country, DCP Kushwah said that opium from Afghanistan --concealed as legitimate export items like talc stone, gypsum powder, basil seeds and packed in gunny bags, cartons and others -- is sent from Iran’s Chabahar port to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai.

From there, the consignment is sent to makeshift factories in Shiv Puri, Madhya Pradesh, for processing to get the final product -- heroin.

“The factories procure various chemicals required for processing through a network of chemical shops located in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. Experts from Afghanistan also assist in the factories. Once processes, the heroin is sent to Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and various other parts of India, using different supply chains,” added Kushwah.

Police said they are in contact with their counterparts in these states to trace the other members of the gang.