‘Drug shipment missed due to incomplete info’ | Latest News Delhi

Around three months before the Delhi Police recovered 770kg of cocaine during two separate raids in the city, the force in July was informed about a 100-kg consignment of the narcotic that was delivered to the Capital, but missed out on nabbing the shipment as the inputs they received were “vague and incomplete”, at least two senior special cell officers associated with the investigation said on Saturday.

On October 1, the special cell raided a godown in Mahipalpur and recovered 562kg of cocaine, arresting seven people in connection with the case. Later, on October 10, the special cell recovered 208kg of cocaine packed discreetly in packets of namkeen from a godown in Ramesh Nagar.

Officers said the two drug hauls are linked to the same cartel.

However, in July, the special cell team had already received information about drugs being smuggled into Delhi disguised in namkeen packets.

“Our informer told our team that a big consignment of cocaine would be smuggled into Delhi in sealed packets of one brand of bhujia. He, however, could not give us any further information, including the routes the smugglers would use and the modes of transport through which the contraband was supposed to reach Delhi. The special cell team tried its best to develop the inputs. However, in the absence of concrete details, they could not track the consignment, or even confirm or deny that the narcotic substance reached Delhi,” said one of the officers quoted above said.

The second officer said that they received confirmation about the 100-kg consignment only while interrogating three people arrested earlier in October. Police refused to disclose their names, saying that it would hamper an ongoing probe.

To be sure, the shipment seized in Ramesh Nagar was concealed in packets of “chatpata masala” namkeen — the cocaine that was smuggled into Delhi in July is supposed have been hidden in packets of bhujia from the same brand.

“As the recovered cocaine was in sealed packets of namkeen mixture, it immediately gave us reasons to suspect that the inputs about July’s consignment of cocaine was correct… Further confirmation came during the interrogation of the three people, who were instrumental in the successful handling of the first consignment of cocaine in July,” said the second officer.

Police probing the case had earlier said that the cocaine was pushed into India by an international drug cartel operated by three Indian citizens based overseas. One of them is Virender Basoiya, currently living in Dubai, while the other two have been identified only by single names — “Gill” in the UK, and “Ali” in Dubai, they said.

Police have already issued look out circulars (LOCs) against these three men, along with three others, including Savinder Singh, who allegedly came to India from London as part of the drug deal, but fled the country on October 4 after learning about the crackdown on the cartel.