Delhi 'druglord' associated with Dawood, Anees Ibrahim: Police

The alleged kingpin of Delhi-based multi-crore international drug racket Dev Behl was associated with the dons of Mumbai mafia Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees before, as per investigations by the Punjab police.
Behl, who was arrested with his accomplices on two days back, had revealed during interrogations that he was involved in gold smuggling with the Ibrahims before he ventured into the drug trade, Patiala SSP, Hardyal Singh Mann said today.
Behl started his career in the 80s and during 1983-88, he was operating an international gold smuggling syndicate along with Anees, on the directions of Dawood Ibrahim himself, Mann said.

"This gold smuggling racket was operated on a massive scale with 8-10 kgs of gold being smuggled on a monthly basis," he said.
Behl met Anees and Dawood many times during the course of the gold smuggling racket and continued to maintain social contact with them after his break-up in 1988, the SSP said.
Behl had revealed that he quit gold smuggling in 1988 due to differences with Anees and because he did not find it lucrative any more, Mann said.

In order to convert his ill-gotten wealth into white money, he started business of second-hand cars.
In 2000, Behl entered the drug business, Mann said, and like in gold smuggling, he did big business in drugs too.

"Behl obtained precursor chemicals like ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, ketamine etc in huge quantities and manufactured synthetic drugs like 'Ice' on a major scale," the SSP said.
"Dev Behl generally preferred handling large contraband consignments," he said.
In 2004, Behl obtained 700 kgs of pseudoephedrine from Hyderabad, manufactured Ice from it and pumped the synthetic drug in the international market, Mann said.
As per investigations, he was working on one of his largest orders - a supply of 300 kgs of 'Ice' to be routed through Nairobi, Kenya, Africa - a single consignment that was worth Rs 1,500 crores in the international market, when he was arrested by the Punjab police, Mann said.

Behl is in police custody till December 9 along with his accomplices and Jagdish Bhola, alleged kingpin of Punjab racket, who was arrested last month.
Further investigations are on in the over Rs 2,000 crore drug case, the SSP said.