In one of the biggest drug hauls in the capital, police have seized 100 kg of a costly narcotic substance used for making ecstasy tablets and arrested four members of a trans-national drug cartel operating in north India.
The contraband -- Ephedrine worth Rs 100 crore in the international market and three kgs of charas -- were seized from one Gurdish Singh, a person of Punjabi origin settled in Canada following his arrest from a posh hotel in New Delhi.
The substance, meant for delivery to a person identified as Robin in the United States, was kept in packets hidden in a cavity in framed paintings, Deputy Commissioner of Police (south-west Delhi) Ravindra Yadav said in New Delhi.
On interrogation of the 29-year-old non-resident Indian, police learnt that the cartel was spread across Punjab, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, triggering a series of raids in several places in these states.
Three of the other gang members -- Amit Aggarwal, Paramjeet Singh and Kailash Chand Jindal -- were arrested from Delhi, Ludhiana and Indore respectively, while raids are on at several places to nab other accused, suspected to be involved in the racket.
Aggarwal owns a laboratory (Maxo Lab Pvt Ltd) in Najafgarh from where the cartel used to procure the drug regularly while Paramjeet Singh runs a firm called Golden Shields Pvt Ltd in Ludhiana, which used to send the drug consignments to foreign countries like the US and Canada.
The modus operandi of the gang was to despatch the contraband in small quantities by courier or ship it if the consignment was large, he added.
Jindal also owns a laboratory (D J Lab) in Indore besides running a newspaper agency.
Gurdish Singh, a school dropout whose parents immigrated to Canada 40 years ago, returned to India two years back and started working for Chinese and Canadian drug cartels.
A pistol, 19 catridges, 11 mobile phones, two luxury cars and a Tata 407 mini truck were seized during raids at Gurdish's houses in Mumbai, Ludhiana and Indore.
Police said they have informed the Interpol and the missions of the United States and Canada in New Delhi about the arrests as the consignment was US-bound and the gang was operating at the direction of people in Canada and China.
The Delhi police had in July seized heroin worth Rs 41 crore and arrested the alleged kingpin of an inter-state drug trafficking chain Gurnam Singh and his associate from Mahipalpur near the Delhi-Haryana border.
Drug trafficking has been on the rise in the capital and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Narcotics Control Bureau have seized over 120 kg high quality heroin in the last two months itself.
