The Delhi Police Special Cell, in a joint operation with the Vadodara City Crime Branch, has arrested a 31-year-old alleged member of the Rohit Godara-Mahender Delana gang and seized two kg of heroin of Pakistani origin, valued at around Rs 12 crore, officials said on Friday.
The accused, Kuldeep Swami, was wanted in a Rs 10-crore extortion case registered by the Vadodara City Crime Branch, in which the first instalment of the extortion money was allegedly to be collected in Delhi, they said.
Acting on intelligence shared by the Gujarat Police, a joint team intercepted Swami in Kucha Ghasi Ram, Chandni Chowk, around 5.30 pm on September 12, police said. A currency note allegedly used as a hawala verification token and keys to a car were recovered from him.
During interrogation, Swami allegedly disclosed that a consignment of narcotics had been concealed in the vehicle parked in Jai Vihar, Phase-1, Najafgarh. The team searched the car and recovered four packets containing around two kg of heroin hidden in a specially fabricated cavity near the spare-tyre area of the boot, officials said.
A case under Sections 21 and 25 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was subsequently registered at the Special Cell police station on September 13, they said.
According to the investigation, the gang allegedly operated a network that combined extortion-money collection and drug trafficking. Communication between operatives was carried out through social media platforms using pre-decided code words, live locations and photographs of currency notes to authenticate cash or drug handovers, police said.
Swami allegedly worked as a courier for the network and collected extortion amounts ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per transaction across Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan. He was allegedly paid Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 for each assignment, officials said.
Police said that on September 5, Swami travelled to Amritsar on the instructions of Delana to collect a drug consignment. The following day, he allegedly met two unidentified suppliers, received the heroin and concealed it in the secret cavity of his car before driving back to Delhi.
During interrogation, Swami allegedly told police that he had turned to the network after suffering losses of more than Rs 50 lakh in his agricultural commodity trading business in Rajasthan in 2022. He had contacted Delana through Instagram, who allegedly promised to help him clear his financial liabilities, police said.
Delana is an alleged associate of gangster Rohit Godara and is wanted in multiple criminal cases across three states, according to police. Investigators are probing the alleged links between the gang’s extortion operations and narcotics network.
Police have recovered two mobile phones and the vehicle, besides the heroin. Further investigation is underway to identify other operatives, trace the alleged hawala and narcotics routes and apprehend Delana and other associates.
