New Delhi, Oct 3 The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has busted a drug syndicate with the arrest of four Afghan nationals who were smuggling a consignment of 380 gm of "premium quality Afghan heroin" concealed in a special cavity made inside a metal piston.
The syndicate was unearthed on September 30 after the four foreign origin members of the module were held during a two-day operation in which the NCB seized the Afghan heroin from a courier service in Delhi. The consignment was shipped from Afghanistan and was destined for Delhi.
"The arrested Afghan refugees were staying in Delhi. They were doing drug business in the guise of interpreters. They used to get instructions from their handler or the drug kingpin who is based in Afghanistan to collect the parcel and hand it over to the next channel," said NCB's Zonal Director KPS Malhotra in a statement.
The kingpin had created multiple identities so that a person handing over the parcel did not know the identity of the next one, said the officer.
"All the four persons arrested are believed to be a part of an Afghan-Nigerian drug syndicate." The four accused Rahimullah Sakhizada, Shekib Ahmed, Abdullah and Agah Wali have been sent to judicial custody.
According to the NCB, the parcel was booked in the name of Sakhizada who received it on behalf of his Afghan handler named Popal.The parcel was then collected by Ahmed as directed by Popal. He was working as an interpreter.
Abdullah received the parcel from Ahmed on the directions of Popal and was working as a conduit in the guise of an interpreter for Afghan nationals hospitalised in India. He was living in Delhi with a girl.
Wali received the parcel from Abdullah on the directions of Popal to deliver it to the final recipient. He was running a travel agency in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar.
The NCB said that the drug traffickers based in Afghanistan have identified a new route to traffic Afghan heroin through courier parcels since the lockdown. Earlier, they used to send human carriers and swallowers who carried heroin in their stomach and transported it to India to their drug syndicate.
( With inputs from IANS )
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