Police crackdown on meth cartel widens, one more held in Chennai
CHENNAI: Tiruvallur police’s crackdown on a synthetic drugs cartel has resulted in the arrest of one more person, Mathin Ahmed (31), who was caught with 55g of methamphetamine and 40 MDMA tablets weighing 26g. Investigators say the arrest has further thrown light into how a foreign-backed cartel was quietly moving narcotics into Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states.
Police sources said Mathin came into focus after the November 8 arrest of Bende, a Senegalese national suspected to be coordinating the network from Delhi. During interrogation, Bende identified Mathin as his key handler in TN. Officers later found that Mathin has a pending case by the Narcotics Control Bureau and had previously served time in Puzhal prison.
Interestingly, police sources said that the drug trafficking gang has used conductors and drivers in private buses to drop drug parcels at isolated spots and share GPS locations with their handlers, for a payment of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
“They leave the package wherever they feel comfortable, under a tree, near a tea shop, anywhere,” said Tiruvallur SP Vivekananda Shukla.
Police said payments seemed to have been routed through bank accounts in West Bengal, Nagaland and Mizoram, many of them opened using forged identities. With Sunday’s arrest, the district police have seized 230g of methamphetamine and 26g of MDMA over the past month.
Fifteen people, including nationals from Senegal, Nigeria, DR Congo and a Tamil from Malaysia, have been arrested so far. Investigations revealed that many of these accused also had involvement in other illicit activities like cybercrime and hawala operations.
Four arrested
Meanwhile, in two separate incidents at Kilpauk and Aminjikarai, police seized 18.3g of methamphetamine and arrested four men who had allegedly stored the drug for sale. In Kilpauk, police detained two men on Vasu Street and recovered 17g of methamphetamine.
In Aminjikarai, police intercepted two men near the Mehta Nagar Cooum bridge and seized 1.3g of the drug. Initial inquiry showed the Kilpauk duo sourced the drug from Bengaluru, while the Aminjikarai pair procured it locally.
(With inputs from Gautham Selvarajan)