2 US-based traffickers supplied 100 kg cocaine to city syndicate last year: NCB probe

The NCB has, till now, arrested nine people in connection with the case, including a Customs House Agent (CHA) who colluded with the syndicate to smuggle narcotics into the city, and a key operator who was controlling the syndicate from Thailand and Malaysia

MUMBAI: Two drug traffickers based in the United States supplied around 100 kilos of high-grade Cocaine – which is banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 – to an internationally-linked Indian drug trafficking syndicate between May 2024 and January 2025, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has found.

On January 31, the NCB raided a Navi Mumbai flat and seized 11.54 kg of high-grade cocaine in the form of 12 bricks, alongside 4.9 kg of hydroponic weed and 5.5 kg of cannabis gummies, cumulatively worth ₹200 crore

The traffickers, identified by their initials Kasim and Ali, hid the contraband in toys and sent the toys from Dallas to Mumbai using air cargo services, sources in the investigation agency told Hindustan Times. One of the traffickers is of Pakistani origin, the sources said.

Members of the Indian syndicate, which was being controlled from abroad, then received the consignments and distributed the contraband to drug peddlers in the city and other places across the country. Part of the contraband was also sent abroad, again via air cargo, the sources added.

The NCB has, till now, arrested nine people in connection with the case, including a Customs House Agent (CHA) who colluded with the syndicate to smuggle narcotics into the city, and a key operator who was controlling the syndicate from Thailand and Malaysia. All nine arrested accused were named in the charge sheet filed by the investigating agency in July. Kasim was described as a wanted accused in the charge sheet, which also mentioned Ali’s role in smuggling narcotics.

Following the trail

In early January, the NCB’s Mumbai unit received a routine tipoff about a bid to smuggle high-end drugs from the city to Australia via air cargo services. Acting on the tipoff, on January 21, the agency seized 200 grams of cocaine of south American origin from the premises of an international courier agency in the city, concealed inside a projector that was headed to Australia.

The seizure of high-grade cocaine headed to Australia set off alarm bells among investigators. “Synthetic psychotropic drugs like Ketamine are routinely smuggled out of India to Australia. But not high-grade cocaine,” said an NCB source familiar with the probe. “So we inferred that there was a new trafficking syndicate on the block and deepened the probe.”

Keen to find out more about the new syndicate, NCB sleuths checked the CCTV footage of the courier agency where the contraband was seized and identified the man who had brought in the projector for shipment. The man liked to live the high life and spent more than he appeared to earn, informants told investigators. After he was arrested, he revealed the details of a fellow syndicate operative who had a flat in Navi Mumbai.

On January 31, the NCB raided the flat and seized 11.54 kg of high-grade cocaine in the form of 12 bricks, alongside 4.9 kg of hydroponic weed and 5.5 kg of cannabis gummies, cumulatively worth ₹200 crore. Cocaine supplied by the two US-based traffickers, Ali and Kasim, was among the seized drugs, said agency sources. The man under whose control the flat was also arrested after the raid.

Subsequently, investigators came across a key operator of the syndicate who controlled its activities from abroad. The alleged operator, a former resident of the city, had fled to Thailand in 2021 after he came under the NCB’s radar in connection with an LSD trafficking case. An accused in three NCB cases, he later fled to Malaysia, where he was intercepted based on specific intelligence.

In May, the alleged key operator was deported to India based on a pending Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN), which allows arrest or detention of fugitives in member countries pending extradition or deportation. A special NDPS court had also issued a non-bailable warrant against him in connection with the seizure of cocaine in the city on January 21 and January 31, said NCB sources.

“We learned a lot about how the syndicate operated after the arrest of the key operator and other accused,” said the NCB source quoted earlier.

Investigators found that the syndicate included highly educated professionals, including engineers and post graduates from foreign universities. It operated strictly on a need-to-know basis, and members used code words, encrypted instant messaging apps and virtual numbers while communicating among themselves to escape detection by law enforcement agencies.

“Key members of the syndicate and their associates usually met in Dubai to socialise and thrash out operational details. Some of the arrested accused also managed finances of the syndicate through hawala channels, apart from transshipments and procurement and distribution of illicit drugs,” said the source.

Subsequently, the NCB’s financial investigation identified the assets of the nine arrested accused and other wanted accused, both in India and overseas, and the process for attachment of these properties is underway.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) may also launch a separate money-laundering probe in light of recent findings, said NCB sources.