Delhi drug bust: How pharma firms helped smuggle Rs 13,000-crore contraband

A chargesheet in the case was said to have been filed by the Delhi Police in the Patiala House court on Thursday. It is learned that the police have named 19 people allegedly linked to the cartel. Of the 19, 14 have been arrested — including Tushar Goyal, an heir to two publishing houses — while five have been declared proclaimed offenders.

The proclaimed offenders include Virender Basoya, the Dubai-based businessman allegedly funding the cartel operation; his younger son, Rishab Basoya, 25; Ritik Bajaj, 36; Pramod, 50; and Vikas Rane, 49.

Rishab, police said, was overseeing coordination between Goyal, another accused, Jassi, and their Mumbai customers.

“Vikas Rane was a customer from Mumbai who was set to arrive in Delhi to receive the Thai marijuana from Goyal and take it back to the city to distribute at rave parties. Pramod, an important henchman of Virender Basoya, was overseeing the financial transactions,” a police officer said.

Police claimed Ritik facilitated the transportation of Thai marijuana to India from Southeast Asia.

On October 1 last year, 562 kg of cocaine was seized in Mahipalpur in South Delhi, and police had arrested Goyal 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 this time, 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.

Aavkar Drugs, which claims to manufacture chemical products on its website, was incorporated on September 23, 2016.

According to police, the seized drugs were all part of a consignment that the cartel operated by Virender Basoya allegedly smuggled in. Police said the drugs were transported as pharmaceutical chemicals consignments to the Avakar factory in Gujarat from South India.

“The drugs came to India at multiple locations from South America via Dubai. They were to arrive at Aavkar in multiple consignments by road to be refined and processed,” a police officer said.

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

“Aavkar was involved with the Dubai cartel and Virender Basoya. Their communication channels are being investigated,” the officer said.