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Delhi cops seize 562 kg cocaine in mega drug bust
Delhi Police seized 562kg of cocaine worth ₹2,000 crore in Mahipalpur, arresting four suspects linked to a major drug trafficking network.
The Delhi Police has seized 562kg of cocaine from a godown in Mahipalpur, senior officers said on Wednesday, in one of the largest drug confiscations in the city.
Four people were arrested for their role in sourcing and selling the contraband.
Investigators said the haul was worth ₹2,000 crore, though officers did not reveal how they arrived at the number. The international rate of the drugs seized would range between ₹500 crore and ₹800 crore.
The drugs were sourced from South American countries ahead of the festive season and a string of concerts scheduled to take place across the country, said police. They did not specify which countries the drugs originated in, and which parts of India they were to be distributed in.
All the monetary transactions were made over Tether, a cryptocurrency.
Officers also seized 40kg of hydroponic cannabis during the same raid, an operation that was in the works for three months.
RP Upadhyay, special commissioner of Delhi Police’s special cell, said one of the arrested men, Tushar Goyal (40), was a key cog in India’s cocaine distribution channels. Goyal, a resident of Vasant Vihar, is the son of businessman Subhash Goyal, who owns two prominent publications in central Delhi.
The three other arrested men were identified as Bharat Jain (41), a distributor; Himanshu Kumar (27), Goyal’s bodyguard; and Aurangzeb Siddiqui (23), his chauffeur.
Investigators said a tip-off from an informer in the first week of August sparked the operation which snowballed into the record seizure.
“Around two people, one of them with a central government intelligence unit, informed us that a prominent city businessman is a large-scale cocaine supplier. We tracked his movements and found that many of his employees were also working for him in this illegal venture,” said an investigator.
Around 9.30pm on Tuesday, an informer alerted the police about a “large” consignment in a Mahipalpur godown owned by Goyal.
Initially, officers only expected to seize 50-60kg of the popular party drug, which retails for around ₹8,000 for a gram.
At the spot, police found Goyal and his associates handing a buyer a consignment.
“We laid a trap outside and caught them while they were leaving the godown. The receiver, Bharat Jain, had come from Kurla area in Mumbai and was caught with 15kg of cocaine. The team caught all four people and then raided the godown,” said Amit Kaushik, deputy commissioner of police (special cell).
The three-storey godown was largely stored with books printed by Goyal’s father’s publications. But on the third floor, Kaushik said his team found more than 23 cartons packed with drugs weighing over 540kg. All the cartons were stamped with the label of a renowned polo T-shirt brand.
A separate box with 40kg of hydroponic marijuana was also found, he said.
Kushwah said Jain was one of several such receivers who travel to Delhi, pick up the consignment and travel to their destination by road.
“The kingpin of this drug cartel, who roped Goyal into the business, operates from a West Asian country,” he said.
Police said Goyal was also involved with his father’s businesses, for which he would travel to Dubai, where he met the kingpin.
“The drugs were mostly received in northern states like Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. From there, trucks would carry the drugs to Delhi where Goyal stored them at the Mahipalpur godown,” said a second officer.
He had a huge network of receivers who would buy 10-20kg of cocaine from him. According to our inputs, the present consignment reached his godown two or three days ago,” said the officer.
“All the transactions were done using Tether. They said it was safer for them,” he said.
