Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar to Dubai via the UK: Drug kingpin’s long run ends

Fifty-year-old Basoya was brought back to India as part of the NCB’s Operation Global-Hunt, launched to identify and pursue major narcotics traffickers and fugitives operating from abroad. A source in the NCB said the process for the extradition of Basoya’s son, Rishab (25), is also on.

Also known as Viru, Basoya was taken into custody on his arrival at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The NCB later arrested him formally. Basoya was arrested in the UAE in June following an Interpol Red Notice issued at NCB’s request, officials said, adding that his return was ensured in coordination with the UAE authorities.

According to the investigators, Basoya used to live off rent from his family property at Pillanji village in Sarojini Nagar many years ago. His tryst with crime began when he allegedly started selling imported cigarettes smuggled from Dubai. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested him, and he was granted bail. The DRI registered two cases against him, and he was declared a proclaimed offender – meaning an accused on the run.

Later, he moved to the UK and met Sandeep Dhunay (42), a British national of Indian origin with roots in Patna. The two allegedly started trafficking in narcotics.

The case against Basoya stems from a Pune City Police operation in February 2024, when 500 grams of mephedrone was seized. “The investigation was expanded to trace the wider network, leading to follow-up recoveries of around 867 kg of mephedrone from Pune and 970 kg from Delhi. The total seizure in the case stood at 1,837 kg,” an official said. The case was then transferred to NCB’s Mumbai Zonal Unit.

Investigators have alleged that Basoya was a key overseas operative in the network and coordinated the syndicate’s activities from abroad. “He is also accused of facilitating the export of mephedrone consignments from India to other countries. The 970 kg consignment recovered in Delhi was allegedly linked to preparations for export through courier channels associated with him,” the official said.

Basoya’s name also figures in a separate case registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell in connection with an international cocaine trafficking cartel busted in 2024. The Special Cell carried out seizures from godowns and other premises in Delhi, Hapur, and Ghaziabad, as well as from a factory in Ankleshwar, Gujarat.

“More than 1,300 kg of cocaine, mephedrone and hydroponic weed was recovered during the operations. During the probe into that cartel, Basoya’s alleged role emerged in coordinating the procurement, transportation, storage and distribution of cocaine and other drugs,” a Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson said in a statement.

In 2024, pharmaceutical companies in South India and Gujarat, including five legitimate and three shell firms, were allegedly used to transport to Delhi 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic Thai marijuana smuggled in by a Dubai-based cartel.

In its chargesheet, the Delhi Police Special Cell named 19 people allegedly linked to the cartel. Of them, 14 were arrested. The remaining five, including Basoya, had been declared proclaimed offenders.

“Basoya, the Dubai-based businessman allegedly funding the cartel operation and his younger son, Rishab Basoya, 25; and other associates identified as Ritik Bajaj, 36; Pramod, 50; and Vikas Rane, 49, were declared proclaimed offenders,” an officer said.

On October 1, 2024, 562 kg of cocaine was seized in Mahipalpur in South Delhi. 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 officers 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.

According to police, the seized drugs were all part of a consignment that the cartel operated by 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. The drugs were then moved out of Gujarat as medical consignments and were handed over, on paper, to an alleged fake company, police said. “Then they were transported as medicine packages again via road to Delhi-NCR,” the officer said.