Mumbai engineer who operated drug racket amid ‘financial stress due to lockdown’ held with imported marijuana worth ₹1.62 crore

The anti-narcotic cell (ANC) of Mumbai Police’s crime branch has busted a major drug racket and arrested its alleged mastermind – a 25-year-old software engineer

The anti-narcotic cell (ANC) of Mumbai Police’s crime branch has busted a major drug racket and arrested its alleged mastermind – a 25-year-old software engineer from Bandra – on Thursday evening.

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The accused – identified as Yash G Kalani – allegedly told the police that he operated the racket owing to “financial stress during lockdown”.

Based on a tip-off, Kalani was arrested near National Library Road in Bandra (West) by Bandra ANC unit head inspector Anil Wadhawane and his team on Thursday evening with 1kg of imported high-quality marijuana. His aide, 32-year-old Guru Jaiswal, who works as an autorickshaw driver, was also arrested with the same amount of drug.

Based on Kalani’s interrogation, the team visited his rented house in Bandra and seized around 7kg of marijuana.

“We have seized a total of 9kg of high-quality weed worth ₹1.62 crore from the two accused,” said deputy commissioner of police (ANC) Datta Nalawade.

According to ANC, the contraband was smuggled to India from the United States (US) for supply across the country.

ANC said Kalani has an engineering degree from an institute in Sydney, Australia, and was running a software systems’ firm. Before the lockdown, he used to order marijuana for consumption from a supplier in the US through dark web and get the drug shipped to Mumbai, said the police. He would make the payment to the supplier through e-wallet, said Wadhawane.

During the lockdown, he was reeling under financial stress and in August decided to supply the drugs to earn money for which he took the help of the supplier from US, Wadhawane added.

“He would order a sizeable amount of drugs from the supplier in the US. Once the shipment reached Mumbai, he would supply them to his clients in the city through auto drivers such as Jaiswal and pay them a commission. He would also send the drugs to New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune through mail and courier,” said Wadhwane.

In India, the drug is sold between ₹1,500 and ₹3,500 per gram.

“Kalani was earning a profit worth around ₹1 lakh each day,” said Wadhavane. He was storing the contraband in a rented bungalow in Bandra.

According to Nalawade, Kalani would communicate to his clients through Wickr App.

“The anonymity-providing app not only has end-to-end encryption, but it also has self-data deleting feature in which the user can set a fixed time after which the chats, photos and videos get deleted automatically, leaving no trace of evidence,” said Nalawade.

Kalani’s contacts and phone call details are being scanned to trace the links of his other associates, the police said.

Kalani and Jaiswal have been booked under the relevant sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. A local court has remanded them in police custody.