Drug ring busted, 16kg heroin seized

NEW DELHI: In one of the biggest drug hauls in the city this year, a team from Delhi Police’s special cell and Chennai police has seized 16kg of heroin worth Rs 50 crore. Three people, including two Sri Lankans, have been arrested from Chennai. The drugs were being transported to south India as part of a consignment of canned seafood.
Two other members of the gang were nabbed earlier in July.During interrogation, they had told police they sourced the drugs from Afghanistan and used to bring them to India through the Punjab border. From there, the consignment was transported to parts of east and south India.
The men also confessed before police officers that the south India wing of the racket was being managed by a man named Mailu Perumal while the cartel was being controlled by someone based in the Middle East.
“A team led by ACP Manishi Chandra tracked Perumal for four months and finally traced him to his hideout in the suburbs of Chennai. Two Sri Lankans, who had come there to collect a consignment, were also present there,” said S N Srivastava, special commissioner, special cell.
A team of officers was sent to Chennai to raid the hideout in Tiruvelli. Perumal and the two foreign nations, identified as Jawzeek M R and Mohammad Razik M K, were arrested during the raid and the consignment was seized.
Police said the contraband was packed in food cans in a way that the cans with drugs weighed the same as the ones with food. The seals of the cans also appeared to be intact.
During interrogation, the men told police the drugs are smuggled to India from Afghanistan through the Pakistan border. Once the consignment enters the country, it is sorted and packed in tin cans that have labels of seafood meant to be shipped to Sri Lanka pasted on them.
Police said that placing the heroin between a huge consignment of food helped the drug sumugglers pass through security check points with ease. Sniffer dogs, too, failed to pick up the scent of the drugs as the fish masked their smell.
So far, 130 kg heroin, worth Rs 400 crore, has been seized during operations conducted to bust the international drug ring.