india

Updated: Jul 27, 2019 02:47 IST

Delhi Police officials on Friday found 130kg of heroin from a cargo container at a customs warehouse in Navi Mumbai, the third major recovery of the contraband being smuggled in from an Afghanistan-based syndicate busted last week.

The police also announced the arrests of an Afghan national and a man from Bulandshahr who is believed to have overseen the distribution within India.

The operation is one of the biggest cartels operating in the country – in all, 330 kg of heroin valued at Rs 1,300 crore has been found from three raids and 10 men arrested.

“The drug was transported as a basil seed consignment. From Islam Qila in Afghanistan’s Herat the drug was brought to Mumbai via Bandar Abbas port in Iran,” said DCP, Manishi Chandra.

Security agencies are also probing the possibility that the cartel’s links may go as far as with the Taliban.

The cartel has been found using a hitherto unseen method of smuggling – the contraband is liquefied and soaked up in the jute bags, which are packed with legal import consignments such as spices.

“In this case, the heroin was soaked into 260 jute bags filled with basil seeds and brought into India through the sea,” said the officer, adding that each bag contained about 500gms of pure, raw heroin.

On July 19, police in Delhi made the first arrests in connection with the cartel and busted a lab at a house in south Delhi’s Zakir Nagar where the heroin would be extracted from the jute bags, turned into crystals and packed for supply to others states. It also found 150kg of heroin.

A second bust was made on Tuesday, when 50kg of heroin was found in trucks that came in through the India-Pakistan border gate at Wagah. Two men were detained along with the contraband, but the police did not announce their arrests until Friday.

On Friday, they were named as 35-year-old Tifal Nau Khez, (who also went by the alias Tifaley) and 37-year-old Ahmad Shah Alokozai (alias Haji). Khez is a resident of Uttar Pradesh and Alokozai is from Kandahar in Afghanistan. Police said Khez controlled the distribution within India while Alokozai was key in arranging for the imports.

Khez, who comes from Bulandshahr, supplied drugs with the help Afghani contact in Lajpat Nagar. Alokozai, based in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar at present, showed himself as a wholesale dry fruits dealer and had setup a company for importing and exporting of dry fruits.

It was their questioning that began on Tuesday that led to the information about the consignment lying in Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai.

“The container, imported by Alokozai through his contacts in Mumbai from Iran’s Bandar Abbas port, was searched. Our team found 260 jute bags full of basil seeds. On opening the jute bags, they found each of contained another jute bag wrapped in a polythene cover. The inner bags were soaked in heroin and dried,” said Chandra.

The cartel’s kingpin is believed to be a drug lord named Haji, who is based in Afghanistan.

“On the directions of his handlers based in Afghanistan, Khez had setup a reconstitution factory at a flat he had specially purchased in Delhi’s Zakir Nagar. He oversaw all operations -- from reconstitution to delivery of processed heroin in Punjab,” said Chandra.

The officer said the two arrested men were also being interrogated by Punjab Police and Narcotics Control Bureau to determine the scope of their operations. India’s external intelligence agencies have also been alerted.

An officer from the special cell, who did not wish to be named, said the five Afghans who have been arrested so far belong to Kandahar, Jalalabad and Helmand. “All these are areas are Taliban strongholds and therefore, the possibility that the cartel was aiding or assisting the terror group cannot be ruled out. We are probing a possibility of terror finance. It needs a detailed examination by the multiple agencies,” the officer said