2 arrested for ordering drugs through the dark web

Two men were arrested for allegedly ordering contraband substance from western countries through the dark web and then international courier, police said Monday.

The accused were identified as Sahil Kadyan (25), a resident of Inder Puri and Ridham (22), a resident of Paschim Vihar. Drugs worth Rs 2.70 crore were recovered from their possession, officials added.

On December 26, police received information that Sahil and Ridham, who were suspected importers of drugs, would collect a consignment of imported ganja from a courier office at Moti Nagar, said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime, Rajiv Ranjan.

Later, a trap was laid near the courier office and the accused were apprehended.

During searches, five cartons of toy gift sets were found in their possession. Upon dismantling these toys, the officials recovered three packets of marijuana in each set, he said. Each packet contained about 470 gram of the drugs in them.

Based on this case, a number of consignments were seized, including one on Monday from IGI Airport, which were allegedly ordered for New Year rave parties.

Sahil mostly procured the contraband from the USA through the dark web, where the process is relatively safe, officials said. "The payments were made in advance through Bitcoins. Once the payment was made to the supplier, the supplier took details as to where the parcel was to be sent," Ranjan explained.

Sahil further came in contact with one Ando from Berlin through the dark web and started procuring the contraband from him as well.

The traffickers would conceal the contraband in five layers of high quality polythenes to evade detection from cuctoms officials and was even perfumed the consignment. Customers were verified and the deals were fixed via social messaging applications like Whatsapp, officials said.