4 min readNew DelhiOct 14, 2024 07:39 AM IST
First published on: Oct 14, 2024 at 06:39 AM IST
The Delhi Police Special Cell, along with the Bharuch police, have recovered 518 kg of cocaine worth Rs 5,000 crore during a raid conducted at a firm in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar GIDC Sunday evening, officers said. Police claimed this is part of the consignment allegedly smuggled into the country by a Dubai-based cartel which was recently busted in Delhi. The Delhi Police issued a lookout notice (LoC) against the alleged mastermind, Virendra Baisoya, who is based in Dubai.
Sources claimed the cocaine was recovered during a search at a company in Ankleshwar. Five people associated with the company have been detained, said sources. A top officer in the Gujarat Police confirmed the five have been taken to Delhi for further questioning. The arrest procedure is also underway, said the officer on condition of anonymity.
Sources said the firm, which claims to manufacture other chemical products on its website, was incorporated in 2016. The Bharuch Police is gathering information on what chemicals the company was manufacturing, sources said.
Special Cell officers said a total of 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic Thailand marijuana, worth Rs 13,000 crore, have been recovered in this case so far. “Five top officials are being interrogated right now on the role of the company,” a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Dubai to Gujarat to Delhi-NCR
The officer said “the drugs came from Dubai and were sorted and mixed before being dispatched to Delhi-NCR”. The drugs were then moved out of Gujarat as ‘medical consignments’ and then handed over, on paper, to an alleged fake pharma company set up in the name of ‘Pharma Solutions Services’, claimed sources.
“The fake company hired employees on the pretext of working for a pharma brand — many of them MBA graduates — and used them to arrange storage in NCR. The company’s name was also used to hire vehicles from transporters in Delhi to move the consignment from one godown to another,” the police officer quoted above said.
Officers said on October 1, the Special Cell had raided a warehouse in Delhi’s Mahipalpur, leased by a publisher’s son, Tushar Goel, and seized a consignment and 562 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana.
An officer said, “On October 10, 208 kg of additional cocaine was recovered from a shop in West Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar… during the investigation, it was found that the recovered drug belonged to a company named Pharma Solutions Services and it came from the company in Gujarat.”
As of now, seven arrests have been made in the capital, including the Delhi handler Goel, by the Special Cell team led by DCP Amit Kaushik. Six LOCs have been issued.
“The Gujarat firm was allegedly involved with the Dubai cartel and Baisoya. Their communication channels are being looked into,” a police officer said.
Earlier, officers told The Indian Express that a paid encrypted app called Threema was used by Baisoya to communicate with his India handlers, including two UK residents Jitendar alias Jassi and Savinder Singh, who were allegedly responsible for distributing the Mahipalpur godown batch and the Ramesh Nagar batch respectively. Jassi is in police custody while Singh has fled to the UK, police said.
The Delhi Police Special Cell, along with the Bharuch police, recovered 518 kg of cocaine worth Rs 5,000 crore during a raid at a company in Ankleshwar in Gujarat, officers said on Sunday. (Express) 
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