4 min readAhmedabadNov 17, 2021 02:38 AM IST
First published on: Nov 17, 2021 at 02:38 AM IST
The Ahmedabad Rural Police has busted an international racket allegedly supplying high-potency narcotic drugs in Ahmedabad using dark web and cryptocurrency and arrested two youth with over one kilogram of four different kinds of narcotics on Tuesday.
According to police, the accused persons — Vandit Patel (27), a resident of Satellite area, and Parth Sharma (32) from Vejalpur area in Ahmedabad — paid the international drug dealers in cryptocurrency through hawala system to order high potency American charas, hybrid ganja, shetter and psychotropic magic mushrooms to Ahmedabad using air cargo courier. The accused allegedly used to sell the narcotics to customers in Ahmedabad city at exorbitant rates.
Police also found a plastic wrapping material used by the drug dealers to hide the narcotics inside daily household items couriered from the United States and Canada to various addresses in Ahmedabad. A sample of the wrapping material has been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for examination, police said.
According to police, the accused were held in their four-wheeler vehicle early on Tuesday while they were on their way from Bopal to Bopal to Iscon crossroads in Ahmedabad, allegedly carrying 300 grams of hybrid ganja, 500 grams of American charas, 221 grams of malana charas gola, 224 grams of psychotropic magic mushrooms and 43 grams of shetter. Shetter refers to a kind of cigarettes laced with a mixture of tobacco and marijuana leaves, said the police.
“The accused used to run a hair salon in Bopal and used it as a front to supply the drugs to customers, mostly corporate employees and college students. We received an input that on Tuesday between 1 am to 5 am, the accused will be heading to Ghuma area via Iscon crossroads from Bopal. The accused was held after a raid by multiple teams of Local Crime Branch and Special Operations Group of Ahmedabad rural police,” said Virendra Yadav, superintendent of police (SP), Ahmedabad Rural.
According to police, the accused made the payment through hawala system using cryptocurrency, a channel they were using since 2019.
“Vandit had downloaded TOR browser and had surfed the deep web to look for drug dealing websites on the dark web. He then contacted the drug dealers who demanded money through cryptocurrency. The accused then contacted hawala operators in Mumbai and Ahmedabad who had bitcoin stocks. The modus operandi of the international drug dealers was to share a name and password with the operators who were then told to deposit cryptocurrency in their mentioned accounts,” added Yadav.
“The international dealers used to send household items such as microwaves and utensils using air cargo courier. To avoid detection in airport scanners, they wrapped the drugs in a special plastic and hid it inside the household items. We have sent a sample to the FSL to examine how the plastic could evade scanners. Preliminary investigation has revealed that the accused duo made over Rs 1 crore in the past two years by selling high end narcotics in Ahmedabad. We have confiscated their laptops and cellphones for further investigation,” said the SP.
Police also said that the accused sourced the local charas from their accomplices Guddu, Fenil, Neel Patel and Vipul Gosw-ami from Gujarat who live in Kasol village under Bhuntar taluka of Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh.
Kasol, a tourist hamlet, in Himachal Pradesh, is known for illicit sale of charas, which is originally grown in nearby Malana village. Both accused have been booked under sections of the NDPS Act.
The accused allegedly used to sell the narcotics to customers in Ahmedabad city at exorbitant rates. (Representational) 
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