New Delhi: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) describes it as the agency’s biggest financial investigation ever — a multi-faceted operation that started with the seizure of heroin in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh in 2022, and led to the busting of a suspected international narco-gangster criminal nexus fuelling heroin smuggling in India.
The NCB Special Investigation Team (SIT) that has won the Union Home Minister’s Special Operation Medal for 2023 cracked the ‘basket’ case (term used by NCB) following a gruelling investigation that involved cooperation with a host of law-enforcement agencies, from police forces in Gujarat and Punjab, to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The labyrinthine investigation involved connecting several dots — establishing money trails, hawala channels and trade-based channels for drug money, besides terror links and the sea (Mundra port) and land routes (Attari border) used.
And it continues, on the trail of 1,100 kg of heroin that is suspected to have been smuggled into India but is yet to be traced.
“This is the NCB’s biggest ever financial investigation. The NCB’s SIT worked with financial investigators, hired tech professionals, along with its other zonal units, Punjab Police, the ED, NIA, intel agencies to probe how the drug money is also being pumped into real estate, liquor businesses, entertainment industry etc,” Gyaneshwar Singh, NCB deputy director general (operations), who led the SIT, told ThePrint.
The win for the 14-member team marks the first time India’s prime drug-crackdown agency has received an award for a special operation.
The high-stakes investigation comes amid a push by the Union government to crack down on the drug menace, which it describes as a major issue for India.
Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier urged chief ministers and governors to take steps to make India a drug-free nation by 2047, when it completes 100 years of Independence.
Shah has also asked security agencies to confiscate properties and assets of drug smugglers.
In July this year, in the virtual presence of the home minister, the NCB, along with the anti-narcotics task forces of all states, destroyed drugs worth over Rs 2,300 crore.
Heroin — Jammu & Kashmir to Shaheen Bagh to Dubai
It all started last April, as the NCB — acting on a tip-off — notched one of its biggest drug hauls from an apartment in Shaheen Bagh.
This included 50 kg of ‘high-quality heroin’ with a street price of approx. Rs 300 crore, 47 kg of other suspected narcotics, and Rs 30 lakh in cash, apart from cash-counting machines and other “incriminating material”.
The heroin, the NCB had said at the time, was from Afghanistan, and was found in packages of an e-retail giant.
Meanwhile, based on intelligence, the Gujarat Police — along with the Delhi Police — seized around 35 kg heroin worth Rs 175 crore through raids in Delhi and UP’s Muzaffarnagar last May.
In October, a Pakistani boat carrying heroin worth Rs 280 crore (56 kg) was seized in a mid-sea op by state police and the Indian Coast Guard.
Officials of the Coast Guard detained the boat and nine Pakistan nationals off the coast of Jakhau, Gujarat, after which the suspects were arrested by Gujarat Police.
Following the seizures, the two suspected kingpins of this operation — Abdullah Raab, an Afghan national residing in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar and Avatar Singh alias Sunny — were arrested by Gujarat Police, while the NCB arrested two others, Imran Amir of Muzzafarnagar and Raji Hyder Zaidi of Jamia Nagar.
In July this year, the NIA attached the properties of Zaidi that were allegedly bought with the proceeds of heroin.
According to NCB sources, a probe revealed that 102 kg of heroin — seized by the customs department last April at Attari as it was smuggled from Afghanistan concealed in a consignment of licorice roots (mulethi) — was part of a tranche handled by Zaidi.
Another co-accused, Dubai-based Shahid Ahmed, was also involved in handling this consignment, they said.
In November, the NCB busted two clandestine labs in Ludhiana used to process heroin, and arrested 16 people, including two Afghan nationals.
The same month, one person was arrested and 20 kg of heroin seized by the NCB following an IB tip-off about drugs from Jammu and Kashmir being brought into Ludhiana.
By then, sources said, the agency had sensed something — that these weren’t isolated cases but part of a strategically planned, well oiled syndicate.
Within the next 10 days, the SIT was formed.
“These people (accused) have laundered crores through trade-based transfers, and the kingpins have made a lot of wealth,” an NCB source said. “We realised that there was scope for big financial investigations.”
A total of 19 people have so far been arrested by the agency in this operation including criminals associated with the gang led by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria. The latter is currently behind bars, but the gang claimed responsibility for the September 2023 murder of gangster Sukha Duneke in Canada (the Lawrence Bishnoi gang had claimed responsibility for the killing too).
Apart from the drug seizures, the operation has also led to the recovery of live bullets and magazines.
Multi-faceted investigation
The NCB’s investigation brought to light how the drug cartel was running night clubs in Chandigarh, but that’s not all.
During the course of the investigation, 66 liquor vends were sealed, 52 bank accounts and as many immovable properties frozen, and 2.5 kg gold bullion and lakhs of cash seized — including 79,000 euros, 2,850 dirhams and Rs 23 lakh. The seizures included 15 vehicles, including five luxury vehicles.
According to sources, as part of the operation, representatives of all the five agencies involved — NCB, NIA, ED, Intelligence Bureau, and Financial Intelligence Unit — also visited Dubai. This was described as a first.
Sources in the NCB told ThePrint that the operation revealed that some 1,500 kg of heroin has been smuggled into the country over the past two-three years, out of which 400kg has been seized so far.
“The rest might have been smuggled outside or consumed. The investigation is on,” said a source.
The sources added that as much as Rs 200 crore has been sent abroad through hawala channels and trade-based transfers.
The ED is now probing the money-laundering angle linked with the seizures.
On Monday, the agency raided multiple locations, including premises linked to Punjab AAP MLA Kulwant Singh, as part of the drugs-money-laundering probe. Singh, a businessman, said later he wasn’t aware of the purpose of the raid.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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