His affection for his wife proved the undoing of Ibrahim Khan, a kingpin of the heroin smuggling racket in the India-Sri Lanka region. He came out of hiding to meet her in Mumbai and see her off at the Mumbai domestic airport, where officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau were waiting for him.
Arrested on Tuesday, Khan was sent to the Madurai central jail on Wednesday. He had been absconding since 2001.
Hailing from Tiruneveli, son of one Gaffar Khan, the 44-year-old Ibrahim was wanted in three major cases involving smuggling of a total of 60 kg of heroin, valued at over Rs.60 crore.
While the three other accused in these cases had already been caught, Khan had eluded the NCB. It was learnt that he was operating out of Dubai, visiting Sri Lanka regularly, but avoiding India.
The NCB officials learnt, however, that of late Khan had been arranging to meet his wife Shakeela, who lived in Tiruchirapalli, secretly in Mumbai. They began keeping tabs on Shakeela's movements.
"With Khan’s arrest we believes we have neutralised a major drug trafficking kingpin having international ramifications," said an NCB official.