Drugs worth ₹2000 cr found in Namkeen packs; Delhi man under scanner | 10 Updates

Delhi drug haul: The drugs were kept in open packs of namkeen.

Days after recovering 560 kg of cocaine, the Delhi police on Thursday found a drugs consignment of 200 kilograms at a closed shop in the Ramesh Nagar area of the national capital. The drugs were kept in open packs of namkeen. The drugs are valued at ₹2000 crore in international markets. The combined value of the two drug hauls is more than ₹7000 crore.

Packets of namkeen filled with cocaine recovered from the Ramesh Nagar godown on Thursday. (HT photo)

Here are 10 points on the Delhi drug haul:

1. "Delhi Police Special Cell has recovered a consignment of cocaine from a closed shop in Ramesh Nagar. About 200 kg of drugs have been recovered, whose value in the international market is more than ₹2,000 crore. This drug was kept in packets of namkeen," the police said.
2. The police have arrested a man named Akhlaq, who is a resident of Hapur district. He had transported the consignment. A UK citizen had stored the drugs in the national capital; he is absconding.
3. "200 kg of cocaine was recovered from the warehouse in Ramesh Nagar. The person who kept the drugs in that warehouse is a UK citizen and after keeping the cocaine there, he is absconding. Police got information about this UK citizen only after interrogating Ikhlaq (arrested in a ₹5,000 crore drug case).
4. In the 560 kg cocaine recovery, the police have arrested four people. The police said they found 15 kg of cocaine in the personal possession of the accused Tushar Goyal, Himanshu and Aurangzeb. Marijuana and cocaine were found in the godown.
5. "Around 15 kg of cocaine was recovered from the personal possession of Tushar Goyal, Himanshu and Aurangzeb. They were caught when they were coming out of the godown in Mahipalpur Extension to give the supply to the receiver. Remaining marijuana and cocaine were found in the godown. Tushar Goyal is a resident of Vasant Vihar in Delhi while Himanshu and Aurangzeb are his two associates. Bharat Jain, a receiver from Kurla West (Mumbai), has also been caught," a senior police officer had said.
6. The police said the two drug hauls are linked to the cartel headed by a Delhi-based businessman who is in Dubai.
7. The cocaine was found in packets labelled as Chatpata Mixture. The packets were opened.
8. The alleged cartel kingpin has been identified as Virender Basoiya, who met Goyal in Tihar in 2011. He allegedly sent the consignment from South America to India via Dubai using an old cargo ship.
9. An HT report said the accused brought drugs from Chennai to Delhi via Hapur. "On Tuesday, we arrested his associate, Mohd Akhlaq, from Hapur. He was in charge of bringing the consignment from Hapur to Delhi,” an officer said. The police tracked the vehicle through the GPS.
10. "Basoiya had hired another handler, a UK national, to take care of the second consignment. Gill (an accused) and the handler were instructed to ‘distribute’ the consignment to different handlers and syndicates. We identified him but he left India on Sunday or Monday.”

With inputs from Sanjeev K Jha, Jignasa Sinha, PTI