Syndicate involved in smuggling drugs in country busted, 3 more arrested
With the arrest of four people, including an Afghan national, the Special Cell of Delhi Police on Saturday claimed to have busted a syndicate involved in smuggling drugs in the country. Police have recovered a record quantity of 354-kilogram Afghan heroin worth over Rs 2,500 crore in international markets.
The accused have been identified as Rizwan Kashmiri, a resident of Ghitorni and native of Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, Gurpreet Singh and Gurjot Singh, both residents of Jalandhar in Punjab and Hazrat Ali, a native of Kandhar in Afghanistan.
Police said recently it came to notice that Kashmiri was involved in drug peddling in Delhi and other States like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
According to Pramod Singh Kushwah, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Special Cell, on Monday, information was received that Kashmiri was going to deliver contraband in south Delhi’s Ghitorni area.
“Following the inputs, a trap was laid and the accused was arrested when he was going to deliver a packet of one kilogram of heroin. On interrogation, Kashmiri revealed that he works under the command of an Afghan national Isha Khan who recently left India for Afghanistan. Khan directed him to contact Gurpreet and Gurjot who were currently operating a drug racket from Faridabad Sector-65 in Haryana,” said the DCP.
“At the instance of Kashmiri, Gurpreet and Gurjot were arrested. Police recovered 166 kg and 115 kg heroin from two cars which were parked in the society. Later, 70 kg heroin was also recovered from the rented accommodation of the accused persons,” said the DCP.
“Gurpreet and Gurjot revealed that they were operating the drug racket on the instructions of one Navpreet Singh, presently based in Portugal. Gurpreet met Navpreet in Kapurthala Jail, Punjab when they were in judicial custody in different NDPS cases,” said the DCP.
“At the instance of Kashmiri, Ali was also arrested from Gurugram in Haryana and two kg heroin was recovered from his possession. Around 100 kg of different chemicals used for preparation of heroin was also recovered,” said the DCP.
“Opium grown in parts of Afghanistan is concealed in different legitimate exports i.e., talc stone, gypsum powder, basil seeds and in packaging material like gunny bags, cartons etc. Then, it is transported in containers to Chabahar port of Iran from there, the consignments containing the contraband shipped to Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust Mumbai,” said the DCP.
“Thereafter, the material is separated from the legitimate exports and sent to the makeshift factories based in Shiv Puri, MP for its further extraction and processing to get the final product heroin,” said the DCP.
“The locals, with the help of Afghan experts, process the heroin and the chemicals required for the process are procured from various chemical shops located in MP and Delhi,” said the DCP.
“After preparation, the heroin then delivered to Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and various other parts of the country using different supply chains. The arrested accused are parts of different components of this network,” the DCP added.
In 2019, the Special Cell had seized 330 kg of Afghan heroin in a multi-state operation.
