Party drugs worth Rs 35 crore seized from Customs parking at IGI, four arrested

NEW DELHI: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has busted an international syndicate involved in trafficking of restricted drugs and chemicals being abused as party drugs by youths.
Around 6.5 lakh tablets of Diazepam, Lorazepam, Nitrazepam and Alprazolam, apart from Mephedrone aka Meow Meow and Methaqualone, were seized from the parking lot of the Customs office at IGI airport. The seized drugs are valued between Rs 30-35 crore in the international market.

DCP (Special Cell) Sanjeev Yadav said the tablets and contraband drugs were collected from various parts of India by members of the syndicate, which has its clientele base in UK, USA, UAE and other Middle-East countries.
Cops also suspect the involvement of some Customs employees clearing the parcels. Among the arrested are a customs house agent, Ashish Sharma (29), and the Faridabad-based India head of the syndicate, Parveen Saini. Two other members were identified as Rajinder and Aseem. “Saini has contacts with some people deputed at X-ray machines of Customs cargo at IGI airport,” Yadav said.
The mastermind, Gajender Singh Rathore, is based in UK. His aide, who lives in London, has been identified as Baljeet Singh Balli. Police are likely to seek their extradition.
“For the last few months, Special Cell was working on the drug cartel supplying tablets and synthetic drugs, which were sent abroad by different syndicates. The team received a tip-off about Gajender and Baljeet after which a watch was kept on the movement of their associates,” Yadav added.
An informer gave the tip-off that Saini would book a consignment from the Customs cargo base at IGI and the drugs would be hidden in parcels. The cops also got to know that Sharma would prepare the customs clearance documents for them. Sharma cleared the consignments with help of some people deputed at the X-ray machines.
The parcels, which were ready to move for custom clearance, were seized from a tempo in the parking lot after a raid. All cartons were booked for London and airway bill of Lufthansa Airlines was found pasted on them. Apart from lakhs of tablets, cops seized around 2kg of Meow Meow and 930 grams of Methaqualone. The four accused were subsequently arrested.
During interrogation, Saini said that he and his friends had started a courier company. His friend used to ship drugs to his associates abroad. They learnt the loopholes in the law after being questioned by sleuths earlier. Saini then developed his own network and started shipping drugs.
Sharma also runs an export firm and had met Saini a year ago. The carton from which the drug tablets were recovered mentioned his firm’s name, Hindustan Exim India, as the sender.
A hunt is on for another customs house agent, Akshit Gulia. “Gulia had contacts with some people working at the X-ray machines and knew about their duty hours. He cleared the parcels with their help for a commission,” Yadav said.