Mumbai techie takes to drug smuggling after financial stress, held

Deputy police commissioner (ANC) Datta Nalawade identified the engineer as Yash G Kalani, 25, who was arrested on Thursday. One kg of drugs was also allegedly recovered from Kalani’s possession.

The Mumbai police’s Anti-Narcotic Cell (ANC) has arrested a software engineer for allegedly taking to smuggling because of financial stress during the Covid-19 lockdown and busted a drug racket he masterminded to smuggle drugs from the US and supply them in India.

The accused led a police team to his house in Bandra West where over seven kgs of drugs were seized. (REUTERS/Representative photo)

Deputy police commissioner (ANC) Datta Nalawade identified the engineer as Yash G Kalani, 25, who was arrested on Thursday. One kg of drugs was also allegedly recovered from Kalani’s possession. His aide, Guru Jaiswal 32, an auto-rickshaw driver, has also been arrested and drugs were also recovered from his possession.

Kalani led a police team to his house in Bandra West where over seven kgs of drugs were seized. “A total of 9 kg of high-quality weed [cannabis] worth ₹1.62 crore were seized from the two accused,” said Nalawade.

Kalani studied engineering in Australia and ran his own software systems firm. Police said before the lockdown he would allegedly order high-quality weed for his personal consumption from the US through the dark web and get it shipped to Mumbai. He would make payments through e-wallet services, said Bandra ANC unit head inspector Anil Wadhwane, who arrested Kalani.

“He would order drugs from his supplier in the US and once the drugs were shipped to Mumbai, he would send them to his clients in cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, etc...,” said Wadhwane.

He would make anywhere between ₹1,500 to ₹3,500 per gram of drugs. “His everyday profit was around ₹1 lakh,” Wadhavane said. Kalani allegedly rented a bungalow in Bandra to store the drugs.

For the delivery of drugs locally, he would allegedly use auto drivers like Jaiswal and give them a commission.

“Kalani was doing the drug business smartly and he would do all his dealings and communications through a messaging app... The anonymity providing app not just has end-to-end encryption, but it also has a self-data deleting feature...,” said Nalawade.

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

He and his aide have been booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and remanded in police custody.