4 of a drug cartel arrested, heroin worth Rs 16 crore seized

The Special Cell of Delhi Police has seized 4 kilograms of heroin worth Rs 16 crore in the international market and arrested four members of a drug cartel having links with Malda-based drug suppliers.
The gang, whose members belonged to West Bengal, was under surveillance of the cell for the past four months and it was found that they were supplying the heroin to Bareilly and Delhi, DCP (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.
On specific input, a team arrested two members of the gang -- Ganesh Haldhar (30) and Manik Biswas (27) and a Bareilly based receiver Johri (28) on June 23 near Gokalpuri flyover in northeast Delhi. Four kilograms of fine quality heroin was recovered from them, he said.

During their interrogation, the trio revealed information about the kingpin of the gang, Samir Mallik, Yadav said.
They also revealed that Mallik procured heroin from a drug supplier in Malda.
A team of Special Cell travelled to West Bengal and carried out several raids and apprehended Mallik on June 26, he said.

The kingpin said he was active in supplying heroin procured by him from Malda-based supplier -- Risawul to Delhi-NCR for the past decade. He was introduced to Risawul by a notorious local supplier of the area, Kishor, who is now in jail, the DCP said.
The heroin is brought from Malda as there is large scale illegal cultivation of opium in the area surrounding Kaliachak, which was in news recently for widespread rioting allegedly by the drug mafia, he added.

The riots in Malda were allegedly a well-planned conspiracy to destroy the records of drug mafia kept at the Kaliachak police station in the district, Yadav said.
Malda district has emerged as an "epicenter" of illegal drug and counterfeit currency trade due to its strategic location along the international border, he said.
It is alleged that a large portion of this drug money goes into buying sophisticated weapons smuggled through the porous Bangladesh border, the officer added.