NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police busted four inter-state drug cartels with the confiscation of heroin worth Rs 334 crore and arrest of 12 gang members.DCP, Special Cell, Pramod Singh Kushwah said three people, including kingpin Shamuta Banu, 54, were arrested in one of the operations. “We have seized 44.5 kg heroin worth Rs 180 crore from them,” the DCP said, adding that the arrest of two members, Dhanji Gupta, 49, and Dheeraj Kumar, 24, from Bihar’s Rohtas district, took place on March 7.
The two had collected a huge consignment from Nagaon in Assam and came to deliver to Indraprastha Park, Ring Road in Delhi. Kushwah said 21 kg of heroin was seized from their possession. Interrogation revealed the duo bought the drug from Banu. “A raid at Banu’s residence in Assam on Tuesday led to another cache of 23.5 kg of heroin. Banu is a resident of Assam’s Nagaon,” the DCP said. “The gang were supplying heroin procured from Myanmar and was active in Delhi, Rajasthan, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.”
Banu supplied heroin to various peddlers in West Bengal, Bihar and UP.
In the second operation, Afghans Ehsanullah (28), Mohammad Amin, 47 and Abdul Razzak, 43 and a Nigerian, Nnadozie Emmanuel, 32, were arrested for supplying drugs in Delhi and 2.5 kg heroin valued at `10 crore was recovered from their possession, Kushwah said.
The carriers smuggled heroin by swallowing capsules. Each capsule weighs about 20 grams and each carrier can carry a few dozen capsules at one go, the DCP said. Two other operations led by DCP (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav led to the arrest of five alleged drug peddlers and confiscation of 36 kg of heroin worth over Rs144 crore. Two members of a Bareilly-based gang were arrested on March 8. The gang would procure heroin consignments from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Middle-East countries. In the second case, DCP Yadav said, the police arrested three people from the national capital and recovered six kilograms of heroin on Wednesday.
Quality matters
Quality of heroin smuggled from Myanmar is much better than the one produced in Manipur, according to a senior police officer. In 2018, the Special Cell had busted more than 25 narcotics cartels and recovered more than 275 kgs of heroin.