Three of family held with ₹10 crore drugs; ran a racket

“The entire family was running the business. Materials were brought from Barabanki and sold in their house,” a police official said.

Three people of a family and a relative of theirs were arrested after they were found to be in possession of narcotic drugs worth ₹10.29 crore, in Lucknow, the state police’s Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) unit said on Monday.

The four people who were arrested on Sunday for operating a ‘family’ drug business, in Lucknow. (Sourced)

It added that the family was running a drug racket, and it was one of the major narcotic busts in the city in recent times. The people who were arrested in coordination with Thakurganj police were identified as Shravan Kumar Nishad, 65, his son Ayush Nishad, 20, Neha Nishad, 24, who’s the wife of his elder son Shravan, and relative Sulfiyan, 20, from Wazirbagh.

The arrests in the Rautghat locality of the city were made on Sunday morning. “The entire family was running the business. Materials were brought from Barabanki and sold in their house. One more family member is on the run, and he will be nabbed soon,” said Thukurganj SHO Shrikant Rai.

ANTF said 1.015 kg of morphine, 252 grams of charas, 5.5 kg of ganja, and 6 grams of MDMA (mephedrone) were recovered from the accused. A sum of ₹79,530 in cash, a 100 Euro note, four mobile phones, and a Swift Dzire car were also seized from them.

“The family was operating as a cohesive drug distribution unit, sourcing and selling high-value narcotics across state lines. The involvement of three members from a single household shocked investigators and raised concerns over evolving patterns in the drug trade where trusted family links are being used to reduce risk and avoid detection,” said the SHO.

According to the SHO, an FIR under sections 8, 20, 21 and 29 of the NDPS Act has been filed at Thakurganj police station. Further investigation was underway to identify the source network and possible interstate links, he added.

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