Two Afghans held with over 320 kg narcotics in Delhi, booked under UAPA

The special cell of the Delhi Police seized 312.5kg of methamphetamine and 10kg of high-purity heroin — valued at ₹1,250 crore in the international market — from the arrested accused.

The special cell of the Delhi Police has arrested two Afghanistan nationals and seized 312.5kg of the narcotic drug methamphetamine and 10kg of high-purity heroin — valued at ₹1,250 crore in the international market — from their possession during a multi-state operation, officers aware of the matter said.

Police said that as per preliminary findings, the busted syndicate has cogent linkages with terrorist networks. (HT Photo)

The two suspects, identified as Mustafa Stanikzai (23) from Kabul and Rahimullah Rahimi (44) from Kandahar, have been arrested under the stringent under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 or UAPA, the police said.

Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal, the special commissioner of police (special cell), said, “Following the directions of the Union ministry of home affairs recently, we have constituted teams for multi-state operations against narco-terrorism. In order to thoroughly investigate the emerging use of methamphetamine as the fulcrum of the evolving narco-terror matrix, a case has been lodged against the accused under the relevant sections of UAPA.”

“Stanikzai and Rahimi were apprehended near the Kalindi Kunj Metro station on Saturday, while travelling in a Skoda Superb car. During the search operation, 1.360kg of heroin was recovered from Stanikzai, and another 1.040kg was recovered from Rahimi,” he said.

He said that Rahimi also disclosed about more contraband kept in a car parked in Noida. “At his further instance, another 1.09kg of methamphetamine and 5.31kg of heroin – both in solid and liquid forms, besides 1.7kg of dry fruits coated with heroin, were recovered from the boot of a white Toyota Etios, parked at Accher village in Greater Noida,” he said.

Dhaliwal said that as per preliminary findings, the busted syndicate has cogent linkages with terrorist networks. “Our Intelligence Based Operations (IBO) also provided credible inputs that over the past few years, Methamphetamine is gradually replacing heroin as the preferred financing option for terror operations,” he said.

Dhaliwal said that the methamphetamine being pushed into India is concealed in different legitimate export articles like silica gel, talc stone, gypsum powder and basil seeds. “From the processing labs in Afghanistan, the contraband usually reaches a port of a neighbouring country and gets containerised for various seaport destinations in India. Wherever reconstitution or purification is required, the contraband – after coming out from Indian ports – is transported to makeshift factories based in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi and Haryana. After the desired purity and strength are achieved, the contraband then gets pushed through a chain of peddlers to the end-consumers,” he said.