50kg heroin worth Rs 200 crore seized in Delhi, largest catch in 6 years

According to Sanjeev Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), the previous biggest seizure was in 2013 when the Delhi Police had recovered 49 kilograms of heroin from Lodhi Colony.

Calling it the biggest seizure of heroin in a single catch in the national capital in the last six years, the Delhi Police on Monday said that they had recovered 50 kilograms of the banned drug from two cars.

Fifty-year-old Manoj Kumar Das is the alleged kingpin of the drugs racket. (Sourced)

The police estimated the worth of the seized drug in the international market to be over Rs 200 crore.

According to Sanjeev Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), the previous biggest seizure was in 2013 when the Delhi Police had recovered 49 kilograms of heroin from Lodhi Colony.

With this, the special cell has seized 177 kilograms of heroin in a total of dozen raids since January 1 this year. In all, 39 suspected drug traders have been arrested by the specialised agency in these cases.

Going by the Delhi Police’s usual estimation of the international price of heroin, the total worth of the recovered drug this year has being pegged at Rs 708 crore. In the latest instance, the DCP said that the four arrested men included the racket’s alleged kingpin, 50-year-old Manoj Kumar Das. “Das was procuring the heroin from Manipur. He has been a part of this business for at least eight years,” the DCP said.

On Thursday, the special cell received a specific tip that two members of this syndicate would be visiting Delhi in a Swift Dzire car to deliver heroin to a contact in north Delhi’s Burari.

“Around 1.45pm, we noticed the car and checked it to recover 25 kilograms of heroin from the cavities of the vehicle. The rest of the heroin was found in the possession of the car’s two occupants, Mohammad Sufiyan and Mohammad Ismail,” the DCP said.

The interrogation of the two arrested suspects gave away the identity and location of the alleged kingpin. Das was subsequently arrested on Friday in Patna, the DCP said. On Saturday, the police also arrested Hasim, the alleged fourth member of the syndicate.

Sufiyan and Ismail have allegedly confessed to having smuggled heroin to Delhi at least five times in the recent months, all using the same modus operandi using the cavities of the car. Hasim allegedly turned out to be the man who was to collect the drug when the first set of arrests happened on Thursday.