NEW DELHI: Delhi has become a hub of narcotics trade as dealers are stocking drugs in the national capital to supply across north India, according to Delhi Police.
In the first 15 days of this year alone, the Delhi Police Special Cell has recovered heroin worth `35 crore. Last year, the police had seized nearly 51 kg heroin and arrested 491 drug peddlers. Drugs like cocaine, meow-meow and hashish have also seen a massive jump in supply.
Officers claimed Delhi is gradually replacing Punjab and Himachal Pradesh as a transit point for drug dealers. “Specific information was received that members of a cartel named Ravishankar and Vikas, residents of Punjab, who used to get consignments in Delhi from a person of African origin, had received the supply of heroin,” P S Kushwah, DCP Special Cell, said. After arresting them, the police recovered heroin worth `15 crore meant for rave parties. In two weeks, Special cell recovered 8 kg heroin worth `35 crore.
“After analysing the data, we found that there is an increase in movement of drug dealers in Delhi. We arrested 370 people in 2016, but last year, 491 people were arrested. Total 392 cases were registered in 2017, which is almost 35% higher than the previous year,” a police officer said.
Cops claimed that the dealers who supply drugs in Delhi are also supplying in European and North American countries. On January 4, police had arrested Ezekiel Chinedu with 2 kg drugs. “Chinedu revealed that he came to India in April 2015 on a three-month tourist visa. For about a year, he had been independently supplying heroin in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab and had also been sending consignments to Europe, North America and Africa through courier companies,” a Special Cell officer said.
Carriers swallow heroin-filled capsules stomach or hide them in rectum to skip security checks. They take air as well as road route to bring in drugs into the national capital.
“These carriers use many tricks to skip security checks. They use their body parts to hide drugs and take almost 7-8 hours to pack the drugs so that they can hide in their body. They get proper training for this,” an officer said.