The arrest of 16 alleged members of an international drug syndicate has helped the Narcotics Control Bureau to unearth an intricate nexus between the Pakistan-based masterminds, drug manufacturers in Afghanistan, traffickers, local smugglers, gangsters and white-collar criminals.
The NCB is coordinating with multiple probe agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau, to pursue various leads and chase down the other syndicate members. In the past one year, the agency suspects that the network – that ran heroin processing units in Ludhiana in Punjab and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh with the help of Afghan nationals – has sourced and processed about 1,500 kg of heroin for local distribution.
“As it turns out now, several modules were apparently operating independently on the ground. However, going up the chain, all were found connected to the same set of criminal elements. The drugs was being smuggled in through both the land (Attari border) and sea routes (ports),” NCB northern range Deputy Director-General Gyaneshwar Singh told The Hindu.
Drugs recovered from tomato tins inside the warehouse. Photo: Special Arrangement
The NCB investigation has revealed that Pakistan-based masterminds arrange for the transportation of “crude heroin” from Afghanistan, either using the legal trade routes by concealing the contraband in the legitimate cargo, or via other maritime ways. The consignments may be brought to Konarak in Iran via Balochistan in Pakistan, where they are loaded onto small sailing vessels (dhows). The other ports that used for transporting consignments are Gwadar or Karachi ports in Pakistan.
The vessels carrying huge quantities of heroin set out for different destinations, including India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania and Kenya, for further supply to Europe and other places. “In Konarak, the dhow owners get about 200-litre fuel from the government for free. Therefore, it is also a preferred transit for the traffickers,” said a senior agency official.
In the 3,000-kg heroin seizure case at Mundra Port, the investigators had found that the contraband had been shipped from the Bandar Abbas port in Iran, after being brought there via land route, in the guise of a consignment of semi-processed talc stones being imported by Vijayawada-based company, Aashi Trading Company.
The NCB has detected two more such instances, wherein the drugs concealed in pomegranate juice was brought in through the Attari-Wagah border in Punjab and tomato paste tins via Mundra Port. The agency has also gathered evidence indicating the link of the syndicate with drug being smuggled from Jammu and Kashmir and one case probed by the Gujarat unit of Anti-Terrorist Squad.
The latest drug syndicate busted by the NCB was run allegedly by one Akshay Chhabra, who earlier worked under a drug dealer and after the dealer’s murder, took over the group that also included the gangsters who came in touch with the syndicate members while lodged in Punjab jails. Akshay’s alleged accomplice Sandeep Singh is a known aide of “gangster” Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, who was allegedly involved in the singer Sidhu Moosewala’s murder. Sandeep himself had been accused of double murder in Delhi and was probed by the Punjab Police in two cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
In 2019, accused Akshay owned just a small dhaba. However, within three years he managed to acquire several properties and made investments in the liquor trade in Punjab. The drug money was being laundered via shell companies by co-accused Subhash Goyal and others. It is alleged that night clubs, restaurants, and other businesses, including liquor vends, rice mill and ghee trade, were being used as fronts. Some transactions related to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have also been detected.
The dhaba owned by Akshay Chhabra | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The agency has identified 30 immovable assets, frozen over 60 bank accounts and seized over 34 kg of heroin, besides other narcotic products in the latest round of searches.
The NCB has alleged that Akshay’s accomplice Hitesh Verma’s firm Verma International was purportedly used to “import” morphine and crude heroin hidden amidst the juice bottles; while co-accused Amandeep Chania helped get the stuff concealed in the tomato paste consignment.
“The suspected association of the syndicate members with those indulging in terror activities will also be looked into. Given that the seizure of about 300 kg of drugs, mostly heroin, from Shaheen Bagh in Delhi and Muzaffarnagar in April last year, is connected to the same network, we are making efforts to identify the other modules, if any,” said another official.
Published - January 17, 2023 08:20 pm IST
