Shaheen Bagh drugs bust: NCB arrests 1 more person; total 5 caught till now

The NCB has arrested one more person in connection with its probe against an India-Afghan narcotics syndicate and seizure of about 50 kg of heroin from south Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area last week, officials said on Monday.

The latest arrest of an Indian man living in Laxmi Nagar was made on Sunday, they said.

This is the fifth arrest in the case as two Indian and an equal number of Afghan nationals have been taken into custody in the case earlier by the federal anti-narcotics agency after raids were conducted by it in south Delhi's Shaheen Bagh-Jamia Nagar on April 27.

All the accused have been arrested under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

NCB Director General S N Pradhan had last week said terror links with this narcotics trafficking case "cannot be ruled out" and the agency was probing these connections further.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had on Thursday said it seized about 50 kg of "high-quality" heroin packed in Flipkart and other e-commerce companies' wrappers, following raids at a residential premise in the Shaheen Bagh-Jamia Nagar and it claimed to have unearthed an Indo-Afghan drug-smuggling racket.

NCB Deputy Director General (operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh had said during a press briefing that cash amounting to Rs 30 lakh was also seized during the operation.

Singh had said this was one of the biggest narcotics seizures in Delhi in the recent past and the agency had acted upon inputs provided by a "reliable source."

Another 47 kg of "suspected" narcotics were also seized from the premises and the NCB has sent the seized substance to a laboratory for testing, Singh said.

The seized heroin originated from Afghanistan and the cash found is suspected to have been channelled through hawala (illegal routing of cash), he added.

The agency also seized cash-counting machines and some other "incriminating" material from the premises.

"It has been revealed that an Indo-Afghan syndicate based in Delhi, the National Capital Region and the neighbouring states is connected with the case. These syndicates have expertise in manufacturing and adulterating heroin locally," Singh said.

A senior officer had said the "kingpin" of the syndicate is based in Dubai and the agency is probing the case further, including certain links with Pakistan-based narcotics operatives.

India-Afghanistan syndicates smuggle goods into India through maritime as well as land border routes and heroin is smuggled with legitimate goods and cargo, the NCB said.