125kg heroin, worth ₹860 crore, seized from Afghan couple
According to police, the couple had allegedly moved the drugs in a car from a place in north Delhi’s Wazirabad village to Khyala and were waiting for someone to receive it, when they were caught. Police suspect the drugs were headed to Punjab.
The Delhi Police on Saturday said they had seized over 125kg of heroin, worth ₹860 crore, allegedly from an Afghan refugee couple in west Delhi’s Khyala.
According to police, the couple had allegedly moved the drugs in a car from a place in north Delhi’s Wazirabad village to Khyala and were waiting for someone to receive it, when they were caught. Police suspect the drugs were headed to Punjab.
While they did not have any movement passes required for driving around during lockdown, police said the couple, who were travelling with their six-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, allegedly tricked personnel at police pickets by claiming that their daughter was ill and needed to see a doctor.
Police said the couple, who have been in India since 2012, produced a photocopy of a refugee card issued by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) but they were unable to show its original.
Speaking about the latest seizure, possibly the second largest seizure of heroin by the city police in recent years, deputy commissioner of police (west) Urvija Goel said police were tipped off about two heroin suppliers coming near Ganda Nala Road in Khyala to deliver a consignment of the contraband on Friday afternoon. Accordingly, a trap was laid and around 4.30 pm, a white car with two occupants arrived at the spot and began their wait. As the receiver did not turn up, the raiding team caught the two occupants, who identified themselves as Mohammad Shafi (48) and his wife Tareena (36), the DCP said.
“Seven plastic bags containing heroin were found in the car. The total weight of the contraband was 125.84 kg. A case was registered and the couple was arrested. They identified themselves as Afghan refugees living in Delhi since 2012. They had brought the drugs from their home in Wazirabad village,” she said.
During questioning, DCP Goel said the couple allegedly revealed that the raw materials had come from Afghanistan and were delivered to them by a person at their home on Thursday. The couple allegedly converted them into heroin and was supposed to deliver it to another person in Khyala for transport to Punjab.
“The couple has made many disclosures but we need to verify them all. We raided their Wazirabad home... The two are being interrogated further to ascertain the entire network of drug peddlers involved in smuggling and supply of heroin,” said Goel.
Meanwhile, pegging heroin rates at over ₹6.75 crore per kg, Goel estimated the total value of the seized 125.84kg drugs at ₹860 crore in the international market.
A senior police officer from the special cell -- Delhi Police’s anti-terror unit that usually makes such big seizures of heroin -- said they value the seizure based on kg rates of heroin mentioned on the website of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
“As per the website, one kilo of heroin is around ₹40 lakh at the point of sale (where the contraband in raw form is produced and processed). The drug has to pass through six or seven channels to finally reach India. Drug dealers have to bear 30% to 40% illicit value addition in the actual rate at each channel. Eventually, when the contraband reaches India, it costs many times the price at the stage of the raw form, depending on quality,” the officer said.
In all their previous seizures, the special cell estimated the value of fine quality heroin to ₹4 crore per kg. Their biggest ever drug haul was in July 2019 when 150 kg of heroin was seized from five men, including two from Afghanistan.