The Delhi Police's Special Cell busted four gangs of drug suppliers and arrested twelve people, including a 54-year-old woman, while seizing heroin worth Rs 334 crore, officials said Friday.
In the first operation, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah, three persons, including a 54-year-old woman, the kingpin of the gang, were arrested and 44.5 kg heroin worth Rs 180 crore was seized, they said.
They were identified as Shamuta Banu (54), a resident of Nagaon district in Assam, Dhanji Gupta (49) and Dheeraj Kumar (24), residents of Rohtas district in Bihar.
Police got information about an international narcotics cartel procuring heroin from Myanmar via Manipur. They would supply it to Delhi, Rajasthan, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal, Kushwah said.
The gang was active in Bihar, Manipur, UP, Rajasthan, West Bengal and parts of north India and drugs to north India were supplied through Delhi, he said.
Police received a tip-off that on March 7 Gupta and Kumar had collected a huge consignment of heroin from Nagaon in Assam and came to Delhi where they were about to deliver it to their contact, Kushwah said.
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Thereafter, a trap was laid near Indraprastha Park, Ring Road. When the two men carrying bags stepped out of a rickshaw, they were apprehended and 21 kilograms of heroin was seized from their possession, he said.
During interrogation, both disclosed that they had bought the drug from Banu, the DCP said. On raiding Banu's residence in Assam on Tuesday, police recovered another cache of 23.5 kilograms of heroin.
Banu used to receive heroin from a Manipur-based person, who used to procure the narcotics from Myanmar, Kushwah said.
She, with the help of Gupta and other associates, processed crude heroin into fine quality with some chemicals in Bihar, The DCP said.
She supplied the refined heroin to various peddlers in north India, Siliguri in West Bengal, Bihar and UP, the officer added.
In the second operation, three Afghan nationals and one Nigerian were arrested for allegedly supplying drugs in the national capital and 2.5 kg heroin worth Rs 10 crore in the international market was recovered from their possession, Kushwah said.
They have been identified as Ehsanullah (28), Mohammad Amin (47) and Abdul Razzak (43), natives of Afghanistan and Nnadozie Emmanuel (32), a native of Nigeria, he said.
After receiving a tip-off on Tuesday, police arrested the three Afghan nationals from Lajpat Nagar.
The heroin was smuggled into India by swallowing capsules of it, which were later extracted from the excreted feces. Each capsules weighs about 20 grams and each carrier can carry a few dozen capsules at one go, the DCP said.
In another two operations, led by DCP (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, police arrested five alleged drug peddlers and recovered 36 kilograms of heroin worth over Rs 144 crore in the international market, officials said.
In the first operation, two members of a Bareilly-based gang were arrested on March 8.
They have been identified as Mohammad Sikander (30) and Mohammad Umar (26).
The gang, being headed by one Tasleem alias Mamu, would procured heroin consignments from Myanmar, Afghanistan and other Middle-East countries.
Besides India, the drug was supplied to overseas contacts of Mamu in western countries, including the US, Yadav said.
In another case, police arrested three people and recovered six kilograms of heroin from the national capital on Wednesday, he said.
In 2018, the Special Cell had busted more than 25 narcotics cartels and recovered more than 275 kgs of heroin, police said.