1000 kg of psychotropic drugs worth Rs 20 cr seized; two held

The arrests and seizure of drugs worth Rs 20 crore came during a probe into the activities of a syndicate involved in trafficking of controlled substances like ephedrine to Myanmar and China from Manipur, they said.

Acting on a tip-off that one of the members of the racket, Ram Naresh (29), would return here from Guwahati after meeting with the kingpin of the syndicate at Imphal, police conducted a raid and arrested the suspect from Dabri area in south-west Delhi on June 3.

Naresh, a resident of Janakpuri, was apprehended with 250 kg of psychotropic substances, including amphetamine as well as ephedrine, used for stimulants such as Ecstasy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arun Kampani said.

Naresh told interrogators that he along with his associate Umesh Mehra, resident of Gurgaon, is engaged in illegal trafficking of drugs since long, according to the officer.

Kampani said Naresh acquires the drugs from two persons in Patiala in Punjab and sends the contraband to a contact in Guwahati. On the basis of this information, further raid was conducted in Gurgaon and Mehra (51) was also apprehended.

"At the instance of Mehra, 750 kg of same substance were recovered from a godown there," he said.

The two were earlier also arrested in a case under Drug Control Act and jailed for two months.

"Both the accused were produced in the concerned Special Court of NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) and were taken on police remand for four days. On June 5, raids were conducted at various places in Punjab at their instance," Kampani said.

Naresh has studied upto class X in Uttar Pradesh. He came to Delhi in 1996 and worked as a carpenter for six months. At present, he is working with a food product manufacturing company. He said that in March 2009, two men came to his factory and discussed about the drug business.

"Till date, many consignments (approx 1600-1700 kg) were sent to Imphal by them through road transport companies. Since December 2010, Naresh also visited Guwahati 5-6 times," the officer said.

Mehra was born in Bihar and did his B Sc from Dehradun in 1980. In the year 1994, he started his own business in Delhi.

"The Special Cell had apprehended a man named Napoleon Thockchom on March 31 with 200 kg of ephedrine. Present seizure is the follow-up of the earlier catch," Kampani said.