Drugs on darknet: Bengaluru MBBS student, fashion designer, finance consultant among 22 arrested

An MBBS student from Bengaluru, a freelance fashion designer, a budding psychiatrist, a YouTuber, and a financial analyst with a multinational company are among 22 youth from 11 states arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection to a pan-India drug trafficking network operating on the darknet, a senior official said on Saturday.

The arrests came following a four-month operation that started with a case from Kolkata Zonal unit and further developed by Delhi Zonal unit culminating in searches at several places, including in Surat, Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Darjeeling, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Ranchi and Guwahati.

Besides MBBS student Aditya Reddy from Bengaluru, two more people were arrested from the Karnataka capital during the operation -- Raghunath Kumar, who went by @shoppersstop and @Guruji and is known as 'LSD King' on the darknet and already arrested by Karnataka Police in a drug case, and one Mohd Aslam, who is considered as one of the masterminds.

With this, three darknet drug markets -- DNM India, Dread and The Orient Express -- were shut down. The traffickers used virtual identities with other vendors on the darknet. The DNM India is a web platform to sell or buy drugs, locate suppliers and buyers as well as assess quality of product while Dread was a dark web page for review rating and internal performance appraisal of drug traders in India and The Orient Express a Telegram group with 300 members.

The USP of the trafficking was the "anonymity" of the purchasers and sellers on the network, investigators said.

"Almost all the accused were in their youth (20-35 yrs) and there are professionals such as engineers, doctors, financial consultants, businessmen to artists such as musicians, to school dropouts doing nothing but trafficking. Almost all were tech-savvy, felt thrilled in dodging police, and had a disturbed childhood or family problems," NCB Deputy Director General (North Region) Gyaneshwar Singh said.

"The drugs were advertised as a restaurant’s menu in their circles for consumers with attractive offers. Escrow deals were offered to win the confidence of the consumer," he said.

The unique aspects of the modus operandi employed by the racket included single-use crypto wallets, professional packaging, concealment in articles and usage of India Post and courier services, advertisement on Telegram group, Instagram and Wickrme apps, fake addresses, vendors verified by owner/co-owner, no cheating or fraud principle, he said.

Some of the phones which were seized by the investigators were found to be customised for the darknet, utilising the custom operating system for mobile that would hide IP address and identity. Multiple ids were found in mobile phones. These ids were forwarding the drug parcels to the customers and taking payments via PayTM, Cryptocurrency, UPI transfer, and several other modes, Singh said.

One of the arrested Jasbir Singh also allegedly took the help of a Delhi NCB staffer to contact his girlfriend in Kolkata and made her destroy his gadgets with the help of his aunt. The NCB took the help of the NDRF to recover it later.

Officials also claimed that Jasbir was "brutal" towards girls after inducing drugs to them. He used to blackmail them with their photographs and videos and got them involved in drug trafficking.

A finance consultant with an MNC, Shradha Surana, who was known as @thebansky, @pizahat, @stevehydes and @trippylanes on the darknet platform, allegedly helped Jasbir in finance management and arranging addresses for importing drugs from abroad. She also allegedly sold drugs.

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