5, including 3 directors of Gujarat pharma company, arrested in cocaine bust: Delhi Police

The police said the value of the seized cocaine in the international market was around Rs 5,000 crore. They said it was part of a consignment which was allegedly smuggled in by a cartel operated by Dubai-based businessman Virendra Basoiya.

Special Cell officers said 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic Thailand marijuana, worth Rs 13,000 crore, had been recovered in this case so far. Aavkar Drugs, a company that claims to manufacture other chemical products on its website, was established on September 23, 2016.

The drugs were moved out of Gujarat as medical consignments and then were handed over, on paper, to a fake pharma company set up in the name of Pharma Solutions Services, the police said.

“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 Delhi-NCR. The name of the company was also used to hire vehicles from transporters in Delhi to move the consignment from one godown to another,” a police officer said.

The police said that on October 1, the Special Cell raided the warehouse of one Tushar Goyal in Mahipalpur and seized a consignment of 562 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana.

“During the investigation, on October 10, about 208 kg of additional cocaine was recovered from a shop in Ramesh Nagar… During the investigation, it was found that the recovered drug belonged to a company named Pharma Solutions Services, and it came from Avkar Drugs Limited Company located in Ankleshwar in Gujarat,” an officer said.

The Special Cell team led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Amit Kaushik has so far made 12 arrests, including that of Delhi henchman Tushar Goyal. Six lookout circulars have been issued, including one against alleged mastermind Basoiya. “Aavkar was involved with the Dubai cartel and Basoiya. Their communication channels are being interrogated,” a police officer said.

Earlier, officials told The Indian Express that Basoiya used the paid encrypted app Theerma to communicate with his India handlers, including two UK residents, Jassi and Savinder, who were responsible for distributing the Mahipalpur godown batch and the Ramesh Nagar batch, respectively.