NEW DELHI: A new international drug syndicate has been unearthed whose kingpins based in India were marrying local girls and using them for carrying, storing and harbouring the illegal drug consignments in the country, a senior NCB official said on Tuesday.
Deputy Director General (Northern Region) Gyaneshwar Singh said they conducted a raid at a house in Tilak Nagar area of west Delhi and recovered 4.984 kg cocaine from a trolley bag and apprehended a 45-year-old woman.
Based on preliminary investigation, interrogation and digital foot printing, the suspected source of the contraband was identified at a hotel in Masjid Bandar in Mumbai. Two more men of the same drug syndicate, both Ethiopian Nationals, were also apprehended.
Upon further investigation, two more syndicate members, both Ethiopian nationals, including one woman, were apprehended from a hotel in Masjid Bandar, Mumbai and 2 kg cocaine was recovered in a similar trolley bag.
“The seizure of approximately 7 kg cocaine, led to discovery of a new modus operandi in which drug traffickers are using citizens of lower strata of the African countries as drug carriers and were switching airports based on their survey over vigil by law enforcement agencies,” said Singh.
The senior official said that the whole trip for the drug carriers was sponsored by the handlers controlling the syndicate from African nations. During the preliminary investigation, the NCB found that the syndicate had a meeting with a group of 8-10 drug carriers in Ethiopia and the main handler assigned tasks to each of them to land drug consignment in India.
“The syndicate was being managed by Nigerian drug traffickers and the woman arrested from Delhi is the wife of one of the main kingpins operating the syndicate from Delhi. He was using his wife, a mother of three, as a local carrier to transfer drugs,” he said.
The drug mules were being paid handsomely for their sponsored trips to carry the consignments (about 1000 to 1200 USD per kg) depending on the risk factors during transhipments.
‘African syndicates behind transfer of drugs’
The senior official said that the whole trip for the drug carriers was sponsored by the handlers controlling the syndicate from African nations. During the preliminary investigation, the NCB found that the syndicate had a meeting with a group of 8-10 drug carriers in Ethiopia and the main handler assigned tasks to each of them to land drug consignment in India.