Cocaine worth Rs 2,080 cr seized in Delhi, second big haul in a week

In the second big drug haul in a week, the Delhi police has seized 208 kg of cocaine worth Rs 2,080 crore from a rented shop in west Delhi, an official said on Thursday evening.

The drugs were hidden inside plastic packets of snacks with 'Tasty Treat' and 'Chatpata Mixture' written on them. About 20-25 such packets kept in cartons were recovered from a small narrow shop in west Delhi's Ramesh Nagar area, the official said.

The seizure is linked to an earlier recovery of 562 kg of drugs worth over Rs 5,000 crore from southwest Delhi's Mahipalpur, he said.

He further said the recovered seizure weighs around 208 kg, which is worth Rs 2,080 crore in international market.

Official sources said the consignment was kept there by an Indian origin UK citizen who is now on the run.

"We got a tip off during investigations of our previous seizure and arrest. On Thursday evening, a team of the Special Cell was sent to the shop and recovered the consignment," a police officer said.

The UK citizen, who is identified by the police, managed to escape before the arrival of the team. He had taken the shop on rent a few days ago, the officer said, adding two people including the owner of the shop have been detained and questioned.

The owner told the police that the shop was taken on rent for business related to garments, the officer said.

It is suspected that the UK citizen wanted to transport the drug consignment to other parts of the country but he fled after the police's previous seizure, he said.

The Special Cell, on October 2, had seized over 560 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana estimated to be worth Rs 5,620 crore from a godown in Mahipalpur in south Delhi and arrested four people.

Two more persons were subsequently apprehended from Amritsar and Chennai.

Earlier in the day, the Special Cell arrested a man identified as Akhlak, a native of Hapur, Uttar Pradesh. This was the seventh person to be arrested in the case.

The police sources said the syndicate was allegedly run by a Dubai-based businessman Virender Basoya. He was allegedly running the racket with the help of Tushar Goyal and Jitender Gill alias Jassi, both arrested by the police, they said.

The police have also issued a look out circular against Basoya, who is on the run. The police suspect that Basoya is a part of an international syndicate which has given different works to different people.

Majority of syndicate members do not know each other and they were operating on the basis of code names on social media, the police sources said.

A senior police officer, who is privy to the investigations, said so far 700 kg of cocaine, worth over Rs 7,000 crore, has been recovered from the national capital so far.

The seizures are the part of same syndicate which which had brought consignment via sea route to Goa from South American countries.

It is suspected some more such consignments are kept or already transported to other destinations, the officer said.

He said the police teams are conducting raids at various parts of Delhi and NCR and trying to nab the other co-accused of the drug syndicate.