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Smuggled opium disguised as digestive tablet, Crime Branch busts racket; 2 held
The operation, spearheaded by the Crime Branch, began on May 22, when officers received intel about a suspicious international shipment. A team discovered 465 gm of opium concealed in tablets that closely resembled anardana goli.
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According to police, the two had been manufacturing opium in tablet form and packaging it in counterfeit boxes resembling well-known herbal brands. The Delhi Police on Wednesday claimed to have dismantled a cross-border narcotics syndicate that was smuggling high-quality opium disguised as anardana goli, a popular digestive tablet made from pomegranate. Two members of the cartel have been arrested, exposing an operation that exploited Ayurvedic packaging to send narcotics to Canada and Australia, police said.
The operation, spearheaded by the Crime Branch, began on May 22, when officers received intel about a suspicious international shipment. A team discovered 465 gm of opium concealed in tablets that closely resembled anardana goli. The consignment was hidden alongside chocolates, clothes, and other innocuous items to avoid raising suspicion, said police.
“The sender was traced to Ludhiana, where a team launched a raid on May 24 and apprehended Lalit Ahuja, a local medical store owner. Another 7 gm of identical opium tablets were recovered from his shop,” said DCP (Crime Branch) Harsh Indora.
He added that Lalit has admitted that he had been procuring the drugs from Harvinder Kumar alias Harsh Dawar, a wholesale medical dealer. “Lalit revealed a transnational web with Canada and Australia as key destinations where Punjabi diaspora communities created demand for such narcotics. Harvinder handled procurement and packaging, while Lalit managed overseas dispatch,” said the DCP.
Harvinder was apprehended on June 26 during a raid at his agency office in Ludhiana.
According to police, the two had been manufacturing opium in tablet form and packaging it in counterfeit boxes resembling well-known herbal brands.
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