Int'l drug cartel busted; 49kg drugs recovered

Special Cell of Delhi Police has busted an international drug cartel operating across Southeast Asia and the Gulf countries with the arrest of an alleged drug trafficker and recovery of 47kg of heroin and 2kg of cocaine, valued at Rs 150 crore on the international market.

According to police, Autar Singh (48), a resident of Delhi, was arrested yesterday following a tip-off.

Three other members of the gang, A Venugopal Reddy (29), a resident of Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, Ragmeet Singh (25) and Shurbir Singh (28), both residents of Delhi, were arrested earlier this month and 9kg of heroine, worth Rs 30 crore, recovered from them.

Piecing together the information collected from the above trio and that which was gathered from various other sources, police were able to close in on Autar.

"A trap was laid yesterday near the red light in Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar and Autar was apprehended in the early hours. On a search of his Hyundai Santro car, a total of 32kg of fine-quality heroin and 2kg cocaine was found neatly packed in polythene bags," said DCP (Special Cell), Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.

Following his arrest, Autar was produced before court and placed in police remand. During interrogation, he disclosed that there was a consignment of 6kg heroin at his residence, Yadav added.

He was then taken to his Tilak Nagar residence where the additional 6kg heroin was recovered. A total drug haul of 49kg has thus been recovered so far during the operation.

The Hyundai car he was driving at the time of his arrest has been confirmed as having been stolen from the Shalimar Bagh area.