Delhi Rs 13,000-cr drug seizure: Brother of main accused among two arrested

According to the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic Thailand marijuana, cumulatively worth Rs 13,000 crore, have been recovered from Delhi and Gujarat in the case so far.

The Special Cell team led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Amit Kaushik has so far made 14 arrests in the case.

A police officer said Ravinder provided the Fortuner car that was used by one of the accused, Jassi, to take 1 kg of cocaine from Delhi to Amritsar. The car was then used by Jassi to go to Amritsar airport, from where he was arrested, the officer added.

Fernandes created a range of fake companies to store and transport the drug consignment, primarily from a drug processing factory in Gujarat to Delhi, the officer said. “The fake company, Pharma Solutions Services, which transported the drugs after processing in Gujarat to UP and rented godowns to store it there, was created by Fernandes. He also created multiple shell companies to manage the finances. He was directly in touch with Virender and was taking orders from him. He is the main link between him and associates in India,” the officer added.

Fernandes was also involved in recruiting staff for Pharma Solutions Services and other fake companies on the pretext of working for a legitimate company. These ’employees’ were then used to transport and store the consignments, a police officer said.

“Fernandes and Ravinder were also in touch with Tushar Goel. Further investigations are underway,” the police officer said. Delhi-based Goel, along with three others, was arrested after 1, 562 kg of cocaine was seized from South Delhi’s Mahipalpur following a raid on October 1.

According to the officer, Fernandes hails from Goa and was operating from Navi Mumbai. He allegedly came to Delhi during the transportation of the consignment but went into hiding after it was busted.

Ravinder’s role, apart from lending his car, is being probed, the officer said. “He lives in Delhi and has multiple properties which he rents out to labourers working in the city. He also has a general store,” the officer added.

The October 1 seizure led to a slew of raids where 208 kg and 518 kg of cocaine were seized from a shop in West Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar and Gujarat on October 10 and October 13, respectively.

“The drugs came to multiple locations in India from South America via Dubai. They were to arrive at the Gujarat firm in multiple consignments by road to be refined and processed. Then they were transported as medicine packages of Pharma Solutions Services again via road to Delhi-NCR,” a police officer said.