The investigation into two massive seizures of 770kg of cocaine by the Delhi Police over the past 11 days in the city has revealed that the contraband was part of a larger consignment of around 900kg of the drug which was smuggled into India under the garb of a fake pharmaceutical company, senior officers aware of the probe said.
The probe so far has revealed that the cocaine consignment, which originated in South America, and reached Delhi via Chennai, Ghaziabad and Hapur, was moved in a complex operation that involved hiring people under the guise of transporting and storing “medicine”, likely involved dozens of people.
The officers cited above said that the cocaine was then transported to Delhi, and was destined to be distributed among drug dealers in Mumbai, Lucknow and other cities to be sold during the ongoing festive season. They said the names of some “influential people” with “political links” emerged during the probe.
On October 1, the Delhi Police special cell raided a godown in Mahipalpur, recovering 562kg of cocaine – the biggest drug bust in the city. Four men, including Tushar Goyal, the owner of the facility, were arrested during this operation. Officers said that around 65kg of the drug was already collected by two people – 50kg by a person identified only as “Pandey”, and 15kg by a yet-to-be-identified Nigerian national living in the city.
Over the next few days, three more people were arrested.
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 were likely linked to the same cartel.
Investigators probing the case said they have since learnt that the consignment of 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, police 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.
“Basoiya is the childhood friend of Tushal Goyal, who owned the Mahipalpur godown. Goyal has disclosed that Basoiya had offered him ₹3 crore in lieu of handling the cocaine by keeping it at a secure place and ensuring its safe supply to various drug dealers. The name of Savinder emerged during the investigation,” said special commissioner of police (special cell) RP Upadhyay.
Planning and execution
A senior special cell officer, on condition of anonymity, said a plan to smuggle over 900kg of cocaine into India took shape after a Ghaziabad-based woman, identified only by her first name of Abhilasha, was contacted by someone who offered her a job as the operational head of an international pharmaceutical company setting up shop in India.
“The person introduced himself as the CEO of the company and offered her the title of operation head in India. She accepted the offer and started receiving a monthly salary, but was initially not given much work. Around the first week of September, the person asked her to arrange for a godown to store some medicines in a powder form that had already been dispatched for India,” the officer said, quoting the statement of the woman, who has not been arrested in the case.
Abhilasha, in her disclosure to the police, said she hired a godown in Ghaziabad and a consignment of white powder arrived in four separate parcels — the final one on September 17. She had been told that some people would come and collect consignment,” the officer said.
Goyal and a man identified as Jitendra Pal Singh Gill (not the man based in the UK) collected around 627kg from the godown and transported it to the Mahipalpur warehouse, while two others — Savinder and Chennai-based A Safi — collected another 208kg.
All four men have been arrested, police said.
“Savinder and Safi took the 208kg of cocaine to a godown in Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, which was arranged on rent by Safi’s associate. Safi was working on the instructions of Basoiya and he was instrumental in handling the entire consignment when it entered India through Chennai. This 208 kg of cocaine was also supposed to reach Goyal’s Mahipalpur godown. Savinder changed the destination after the raid at Goyal’s godown and took it to the godown in Ramesh Nagar,” said the officer.
How police learnt about the Ramesh Nagar godown
A second special cell officer said Abhilasha told police that more than 200kg of the white powder was picked up by Savinder and Safi.
“To support her claims, the woman showed CCTV footage of the godown, in which apart from Goyal and Gill, two more people were seen loading the consignment into a white Maruti Ertiga. When Goyal and Jitendra Gill were confronted with the video clip, they disclosed the names of Savinder and Safi,” the second officer said.
To identify and nab the two suspects, investigators obtained ownership details of the Ertiga and found that it belonged to a transporter in Tilak Nagar. When the transporter was questioned, he told the investigators that the client was referred to him by the owner of an optician in Pitampura. The optician in turn was questioned, and he identified Savinder Singh, the officer said.
“The transporter told our team that his vehicle was GPS-fitted… We checked the GPS logs and found that it had travelled to Ghaziabad, Hapur and Ramesh Nagar. We raided the Hapur godown and arrested Safi and his associate, while Savinder had already fled the country. Safi’s interrogation led us to the godown in Ramesh Nagar,” the officer said.
Trail leads to Pune
Investigators said when they began tracing the steps of the cartel, they turned their attention to the company that employed Abhilasha, and found that she was being paid through a bank in Pune, Maharashtra. A police team then went to Pune, and found that the account holder is a waiter in a restaurant, who said that a man named Bhavesh Munde had sought his identity documents for some work and had paid him ₹30,000.
“We obtained Munde’s residential address and raided it. His family members claimed that he had not visited them for more than five years. We suspect that Munde was directly working for Basoiya and could be the person who had approached Abhilasha with the job offer. We have got the LOC issued against him as well,” said the first officer quoted above.
Hunt on for other distributors
Senior police officers said that while they are in the process of identifying the Nigerian national who collected 15kg cocaine from the Mahipalpur godown, their hunt for Pandey, who collected 50kg of the contraband from the same place, hit a roadblock after the team raided his village in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh.
“Pandey’s family and neighbours told our team members that they had not seen him for more than 10 years. We suspect that Pandey is a key associate of Basoiya as both were together when Jitendra Gill had visited Dubai a couple of months ago. An LOC has also been issued against Pandey, hoping that he could still be in India,” added the officer.
Leave a Reply