The Special Cell of Delhi Police has busted an inter-continental syndicate of cocaine traffickers operating in a highly organized manner and arrested two accused along with 1,850 grams of contraband valued at approximately Rs 10 crore in the international market, said Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Manishi Chandra on Wednesday.
The arrested accused have been identified as Maurey E Gangadien (45) a resident of Suriname, South America, and Namubiru Janat (35), a resident of Navi Mumbai, and a native of Uganda were arrested in this connection.
Chandra further said that the syndicate was being operated by its key players based in South America with nodes in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Delhi.
"The contraband was being clandestinely smuggled into India by smartly packing in ladies' purses and cosmetic articles for the last several months," said Delhi DCP.
It said that the Counter Intelligence Unit of Special Cell has been developing intelligence on various cocaine-specific cartels operating in India.
Amidst continuous intel-operation, a specific input was received on February 14 regarding the movements of a foreign national lady into Delhi who was informed to have brought in significant quantities of cocaine from abroad.
"Acting on the input, the team conducted a raid at a hotel in Karol Bagh area in Delhi, where a Surinamese lady namely Maurey Erna Gangadien was found staying since February 11. After complying with the stipulations under the NDPS Act, a search operation was carried out at her hotel room and over 1 kg of fine quality cocaine, neatly and professionally packed into the ladies purses', deodorant containers etc., was recovered," the DCP said.
The accused was accordingly arrested and a police custody remand was obtained from the concerned Court.
"During her interrogation, the accused disclosed that she had transported the contraband on directions of her Paramaribo, Suriname based handlers who are connected with other cartels operating out of South American producer countries like Mexico etc. and have major transshipment partners in several African nations," the police said.
It was also revealed that on February 14, prior to her arrest, the accused had delivered a part of the consignment brought in by her to another foreign national lady namely Lissa, a resident of Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Accordingly, efforts were made to identify and track the movements of suspect Lissa and to recover the contraband that she had reportedly received.
On February 21, the suspect Lisa whose real name was Namubiru Janat was apprehended from south Delhi while she was carrying a portion of the cocaine received from the first accused. She was also arrested and taken into police remand after which she led to further recoveries of cocaine.
"Accused Namubiru Janat holds a Ugandan passport and has been living in India at various places. Her movement records show that almost on a daily basis, she has been taking flights to various metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Ahmedabad etc," it said.
The police have informed the respective embassies about their arrests and further investigation is under progress.
Further investigation is underway.
( With inputs from ANI )
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