Police said Ritik was one of the key suppliers of Virender Basoiya aka Veeru, the Dubai-based businessman allegedly funding the cartel’s operation. “Ritik was running a Thai marijuana supply chain from Thailand, and would regularly send consignments to Basoiya’s cartel in India. Last October, he had sent 40 kg drugs for distribution in multiple Indian cities — his biggest order placed by Basoiya,” a senior police officer said. 

It was in 2023 that Ritik met Tushar Goel, one of Basoiya’s alleged henchmen in Delhi. “During 2023-2024, he developed close associations with co-accused Tushar and Mayank Jain through the Goa-Phuket nightlife circuit.,” a police officer said. 

In June 2024, Ritik got his first order of cannabis from Basoiya, which he supplied from Phuket via passenger planes — with the drug packets hidden in the luggage. “Ritik had contacts in the cannabis supply chains of Phuket. The narcotics were stored and distributed in Delhi/NCR through local associates, while the accused handled collection and transfer of sale proceeds and sharing of profits,” said police. 

“After Tushar’s arrest, Ritik moved across multiple countries and ultimately reached Dubai, where he was apprehended by Dubai Police,” a police official claimed. 

On October 9, a Red Corner Notice had been issued against him by the Interpol on the CBI’s request. 

“The CBI coordinated with NCB Bangkok and got information about travel movement of the subject (Ritik) towards UAE. Thereafter, CBI coordinated with NCB Abu Dhabi to locate the subject. A team of Delhi Police visited UAE to bring back the subject and arrived in India with the subject from UAE on 23.12.2025, at New Delhi,” said the CBI in a statement.

Ritik was brought back to India by a Special Cell team led by ACP Kailash Bhist, under direction of DCP Amit Kaushik. He has now been sent to three-day police custody. 

The drug bust

On October 1 last year, 562 kg of cocaine was seized in Mahipalpur in South Delhi. Police had arrested Tushar along with three others. 

Then, on October 10, 208 kg of cocaine was seized from a shop in Ramesh Nagar, West Delhi.

The third seizure was made on October 13, when Special Cell sleuths and the Gujarat Police recovered 518 kg of cocaine worth Rs 5,000 crore in the international market during a raid at a firm called Aavkar Drugs in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar.

Five people were arrested, including three of the company’s listed directors — Ashwin Keshubhai Ramani, Brijesh Kothia, and Vijay Keshavlal Bhesania. The other two men arrested were Mayur, an employee of a company named Pharma Solutions Services, and middleman Amit Masuria, who allegedly aided the meeting between representatives of the two firms, police said.

That’s when police put the pieces together. Multiple pharmaceutical companies based in South India and Gujarat — including five legitimate and three shell firms — were allegedly used to transport 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic Thai marijuana that was smuggled in by the cartel into the national capital in October last year. 

Police had said the seized drugs were all part of a consignment that the cartel operated by Basoiya allegedly smuggled in. “The drugs arrived at multiple locations in India from South America via Dubai. They were to arrive at Aavkar Drugs in multiple consignments by road to be refined and processed,” an officer had said.

These drugs were then moved out of Gujarat as medical consignments and handed over, on paper, to Pharma Solutions Services, police had said. “These were transported as medicine packages of Pharma Solutions Services via road to Delhi-NCR,” the officer had said.

A chargesheet of over 10,000 pages had been filed by the Delhi Police in the Patiala House court that named 19 people allegedly linked to the cartel. Of them, 17 were arrested and five were declared ‘proclaimed offenders.