KOCHI: The Excise Special Squad on Thursday busted a drug peddling gang named ‘Night Droppers’ and arrested three of its members from Ponnurunni near Vytilla. The squad also recovered LSD stamps, MDMA and ganja from their possession.
The arrested are Ashiq Anwar, 24; Shahid, 27; and Ajmal, 23, all natives of Kodungalloor. Highly potent 10 LSD stamps of three dot categories, 0.285g of MDMA and 50g of ganja were recovered from them. The gang came under the radar of Excise after the agency recently arrested some persons who procured drugs from the group.
“The gang was called ‘Night Droppers’ in secretive social media channels as they mostly operated only at night. Some of their customers confessed that they never met the persons who supplied drugs to them. The gang’s modus operandi was taking orders through clandestine social media channels.
The customers while placing orders for drugs also had to transfer money to a bank account of a firm in Bengaluru. This was done to evade detection by police or other agencies. Once the money is transferred, they drop drugs in water-tight packages in isolated places. Later, they send the exact location where the consignment is dropped,” said an Excise official.
The Excise collected CCTV footage from places where the customers picked up the consignments containing drugs. “In the CCTV footage collected from various places, we found the presence of a red coloured car. Thus, we launched a probe about the vehicle and received information about the gang,” said an Excise officer.
Tracing the movement of the car, Excise personnel intercepted the vehicle on National Highway Service Road in Ponnurunni near Vytilla on Thursday. “Seeing us, they tried to flee in their car. But our car overtook theirs and stopped in front of it.
Then they came out of the car and tried to escape. However, our officials with the help of residents, chased the gang members and took them into custody,” said the officer.
The officials said that the gang was famous among drug abusers’ circle as they timely delivered drugs. The arrested persons were informed about other gang members. Excise has launched an attempt to arrest the absconding members. The arrested persons were produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.