Penury drove woman into drug trafficking

After the death of her husband and marriages of two daughters, 54-year-old Shamuta Banu entered the world of drugs for her livelihood and became the kingpin of an Assam-based narcotics gang, police said.

A resident of Nagaon district in Assam, Banu was in the throes of a financial crisis when she came in contact with a drug dealer from Manipur, who lured her into working for him, a senior police officer said.

Banu's husband died in 2014 after the marriages of their daughters. He was a labourer and had some land in his name, police said.

The daughters married in Assam and were residing close to their mother's home, they said.

Initially, Banu started supplying drugs on her own but later formed a gang. She was the alleged kingpin of the gang which was busted on Tuesday, the officer said.

Besides Delhi, Banu's gang was supplying drugs in Bihar, Manipur, UP, Rajasthan, West Bengal and parts of north India.

During Tuesday's raid two other persons were also arrested and 44.5 kg heroin worth Rs 180 crore was seized from them.

In her statement, Banu said she used to procure crude heroin from a Manipur-based person who brought the stuff from Myanmar.

In her initial years in the racket, Banu came in contact with one Dhanji Gupta, a resident of Rohtash district in Bihar, and started supplying heroin to him.

Banu, with the help of Gupta and her other associates, used chemical agents to process crude heroin into fine quality product.

Subsequently, she developed her own network for getting the heroin from Manipur and supplying it across the country.

When asked about her connection outside India, the officer said Banu used to supply majority of the drugs in India but some Afghan and Nigerian nationals transported the contraband to various countries, including the UK, the USA, South Africa and Canada.

Another senior police officer said the peddlers started procuring heroin from Myanmar due to its fine quality and cheap rates.