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Wanted drugs supplier arrested from airport while trying to flee to Dubai
The wanted person, Ali Asgar Shirazi, was nabbed from Mumbai airport while trying to flee to Dubai on Monday night. Shirazi was not aware that the crime branch had issued a look out circular (LOC) against him in March this year after they arrested five accused in the case and his name had surfaced during interrogation.
Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch have arrested a main accused in a case concerning smuggling of Ketamine and Viagra, worth ₹8 crore, to Australia and the United Kingdom using a courier service. The wanted person, Ali Asgar Shirazi, was nabbed from Mumbai airport while trying to flee to Dubai on Monday night.
Shirazi was not aware that the crime branch had issued a look out circular (LOC) against him in March this year after they arrested five accused in the case and his name had surfaced during interrogation.
Shirazi, who is a resident of Andheri, was produced in court on Tuesday and was remanded to police custody till June 1. He is the main link in the case, as he was in touch with Kailash Rajput, who is one of the biggest drug suppliers to the country and has reportedly been traced to the United Kingdom (UK).
“The Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) launched a manhunt for Shirazi in March and a police team visited Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and several places in the country to search for him but he was continuously changing his destination,” said an officer of the crime branch.
“He was arrested on Monday night when he reached the airport, and the immigration officers alerted the crime branch as an LOC was issued against him,” added the officer.
The AEC of the crime branch had raided the premises of a courier office in Andheri East and had claimed to have seized 15 kilograms of Ketamine and 23,000 tablets of Viagra, worth around ₹8 crore in March. The police had earlier arrested seven accused in the case.
The contraband and the banned medicine were being smuggled to Australia and the UK through courier, said police officials. The police officer said they have issued LOC against the three wanted, including Danish Mulla, Shirazi and Rajput.
During the raid in March, police arrested Vijay Rane and Hasim Shaikh — who ran the courier service in question and had an office named ‘Shree Swami Samarth advertisement’ in Andheri East. During the investigation, the officials learnt that the accused procured Ketamine from Gujarat.
After interrogation, police arrested Vikas Gupta and Nitesh Yadav. Gupta worked as a driver and Yadav was employed in the courier service. Rane and Hasim wrapped the party drugs into small packets and handed them over to Yadav and Gupta, who delivered the consignment to clearing agents at the airport cargo hub.
After questioning Yadav and Gupta, the police arrested Abhay Jadaye, Babasaheb Kakade and Shitesh Pawar. The three of them worked with an authorised clearing agent and booked consignments for air cargo.
The police said the trio used to take an extra commission from Yadav and Gupta to ensure that the consignments were cleared by the Customs and booked them to Australia and the UK along with their other consignments, said joint commissioner of the police Lakhmi Gautam of the crime branch.
The accused had been supplying Ketamine to Australia and the UK for a long time and had smuggled at least 10 kilograms of ketamine every month, added the official.