Anti-narcotics sleuths have busted a trans-national syndicate which allegedly used to smuggle high quality Nepalese cannabis, cleverly concealed in "religious diaries", to be sent to European countries via India.
The Delhi zonal unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested two persons in the case, identified as R B Singh (50) and Munish Gupta (28), for allegedly running the "well oiled" racket.
"The cannabis (charas) concealed in religious diaries used to be brought to the accused by road from Nepal. After repackaging, the same amongst other religious diaries, these religious diaries containing charas were being sent via courier parcels to European and South East Asian countries like the UK, Germany, Portugal, Austria and Hong Kong. The contraband was concealed in these diaries by creating fake cavities in them," the agency said in a statement.
NCB took the duo on radar and kept on seizing about 20 kgs of the said contraband for the last few months but could not get hold of the men behind it as they said the accused used to book narcotic parcels on fake addresses and used forged identities to procure mobile phone SIMs.
However, the duo was arrested from Noida on March 30 as part of the sustained NCB surveillance, they said adding the accused had "trans-national connections."
NCB Zonal Director Rohit Sharma said Nepal origin cannabis is considered to be of a very high quality on the lines of the 'Malana' charas of Himachal Pradesh.
Officials said the duo had at least sent 25 such parcels to European destinations in the past and they allegedly earned about Rs 50,000 on per parcel delivery.
A Noida court has sent the duo in judicial custody under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), they said.
