NCB, Delhi Police seize narcotics worth Rs 27.4 cr

After Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said a joint team of the Narcotics Control Bureau and Delhi Police seized a large cache of narcotics worth Rs 27.4 crore and arrested five persons, Delhi Police sources said the seizure included high-quality crystal methamphetamine, Afghan heroin, and MDMA.

“In line with the Modi government’s zero tolerance policy against drugs, a major narco-network was busted in Delhi-NCR. The NCB and Delhi Police grabbed the gang by its throat and recovered methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine worth Rs 27.4 crore and arrested five people,” the home minister said in a post on X.

The arrested persons included four Nigerian nationals from influential families, the sources said.

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Acting on specific intelligence inputs, the law enforcement agencies kept the suspects under surveillance before making the arrests.

The officers traced the contraband’s origin to an African kitchen at Tilak Nagar in West Delhi, police said.

“A search of the premises resulted in the seizure of 1.156 kg of crystal methamphetamine, 4.142 kg of Afghan heroin, and 5.776 kg of MDMA (ecstasy pills), with an estimated value of Rs 16.4 crore,” a source said.

Further investigation led the teams to a rented apartment in Greater Noida, where officers seized an additional 389 gm of Afghan heroin and 26 gm of cocaine, taking the value of the total drug haul to Rs 27.4 crore.

The drug racket was involved in facilitating African youths in obtaining student visa under the pretext of pursuing higher education in India, particularly in private universities in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Punjab.

However, many of these individuals were allegedly engaged in narcotics trade and illegal cryptocurrency transactions, police sources said.

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The authorities are trying to uncover the backward and forward linkages of the drug syndicate, and efforts are on to track down the other associates of the gang to completely dismantle the network, the sources said.