Ketamine case: ED raids six premises linked to drug peddler

Mumbai Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) had in March conducted searches at a courier office in Andheri East and allegedly seized 15.74 kg of Ketamine worth ₹7.87 crore, and 23,410 strips of a prohibited drug worth ₹58.31 lakh

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate has carried out searches at six locations related to the seizure of drugs worth ₹8 crore, including Ketamine and the arrest of alleged infamous narcotics trafficker Ali Asgar Shirazi.

Shirazi is accused of being a part of a drug trafficking syndicate that sent illegal synthetic drugs to several countries. He is also accused of being an aide of fugitive narcotics trafficker, Kailash Rajput, and of having ties with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s gang. Shirazi and Rajput were earlier arrested in October 2012 for their alleged involvement in a case related to the seizure of psychotropic substances (HT PHOTO)

“Ed’s probe has revealed that suspected proceeds of crime worth ₹100 crore, which were generated through narcotics trafficking-related activities, were allegedly invested/layered through a set of entities, including a firm that runs several cloud kitchens in multiple cities,” sources said. “On Monday and Tuesday, the agency’s searches included premises linked to Shirazi, his associates and the premises of the firm that runs cloud kitchens.”

Mumbai Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) had in March conducted searches at a courier office in Andheri East and allegedly seized 15.74 kg of Ketamine worth ₹7.87 crore, and 23,410 strips of a prohibited drug worth ₹58.31 lakh. The contraband and the prohibited drug were allegedly meant to be smuggled to Australia and the United Kingdom.

Shirazi is accused of being a part of a drug trafficking syndicate that sent illegal synthetic drugs to several countries. He is also accused of being an aide of fugitive narcotics trafficker, Kailash Rajput, and of having ties with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s gang. Shirazi and Rajput were earlier arrested in October 2012 for their alleged involvement in a case related to the seizure of psychotropic substances.

On May 22, the AEC arrested Shirazi after he arrived at the airport to go to Dubai. The AEC subsequently in its submissions before a city metropolitan court, for an extension of Shirazi’s remand, stated that he was considered allegedly a key associate of Rajput.

“Shirazi had many times visited Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and several other places in the country, and Rajput was found to have links with Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, and Chhota Shakeel and part of the earnings of the Ketamine smuggling racket is suspected to have gone for terror funding,” an AEC remand application had stated. The police also said that Shirazi had allegedly deleted all the data from his mobile phone and a laptop and that he was linked with the dispatch of 30 consignments of contraband to the UK, the United States and Australia this year.

The AEC had arrested a total of seven accused in the case. Its probe had revealed that the Ketamine had been allegedly procured from Gujarat.