Drug racket hunt to continue: Shah after NCB seizes 80 kg cocaine in Delhi

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has confiscated more than 80 kg of cocaine worth around Rs 900 crore in the national capital, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday and asserted that the government's hunt against drug rackets will continue "ruthlessly".

Two people, residents of Delhi and Sonipat, were arrested in the case.

The "high-grade" party drug was seized from the Janakpuri and Nangloi areas of the national capital on Thursday, NCB Deputy Director General (Northern region) Neeraj Kumar Gupta said.

The cocaine seizure came on a day when a joint operation by the NCB, the Navy and the Gujarat ATS led to the confiscation of about 700 kg of methamphetamine along the Gujarat coast.

This operation on the sea also saw the arrest of 8 Iranian nationals.

"The back-to-back major breakthroughs against illegal drugs in a single day demonstrate the Modi government's unwavering resolve to build a drug-free Bharat. The NCB today confiscated 82.53 kg of high-grade cocaine in New Delhi," Shah posted on X.

The "massive" drug consignment is worth about Rs 900 crore and it was tracked down by a "bottom-to-top approach" after a quantity of drugs was seized in a courier centre in Delhi, he said.

"Our hunt against drug rackets will continue ruthlessly," the minister added.

He congratulated the federal anti-narcotics agency on this major success of seizing the cocaine consignment.

Gupta said the latest seizure of cocaine came after the agency worked on the "leads generated" from two earlier recoveries of the same drugs made from Delhi in March and August.

The initial recovery of cocaine (in the earlier months) was made from a courier shop in Delhi and these drugs were meant to be sent to Australia, he said.

The persons involved in the latest case of seizure of cocaine are mainly Hawala operators and they did not know each other, the NCB officer said.