NEW DELHI: A drug ring busted by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has turned out to be a high-profile international cartel involving a financial analyst, a medical student, businessmen, musicians and engineers who allegedly trafficked magic mushrooms, LSD, MD crystals , hashish chocolates, cocaine and Ecstasy on the darknetthe NCB operation – which TOI first reported on Saturday – reportedly shut down three major drug markets of DNM India, Dread and The Orient Express on the Darknet.
The NCB has arrested 22 traffickers but not the users, whose count crossed 300 in a single Telegram group operated by the syndicate, officials said. Rs 22.5 lakh was seized in cash besides various synthetic drugs. NCB also tracked Rs 2 crore in cryptocurrency, but hasn’t been able to recover it.
The cartel used a technique called drop shipping to deliver drugs to the user. This involved tier1 (main) drug vendors making deliveries to tier-1 drop-shippers in India who stored it at clandestine warehouses. The drop shippers sold the drugs in the country through delivery agents, thereby cutting the chain between the source and the destination, officials said.
Confirming TOI’s report, the NCB said in a statement that they took assistance of National Disaster Response Force divers to retrieve evidence from a waterbody during the raid in which a constable of NCB was also arrested, along with others. “As many as 22 active members of the syndicate were arrested in simultaneous raids in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Assam, Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The drugs were sourced from countries like the US, UK, Netherlands and Poland,” said Gyaneshwar Singh, NCB deputy director general.
The NCB recovered 975 blotters of LSD and 1.5kg of MDMA crystals, apart from liquid and paste of cannabis and other drugs.
The NCB personnel who connived with the main accused and helped destroy evidence is currently in judicial custody.
Post arrest, the accused were taken on remand. The bail pleas of all the 22 arrested have been rejected because of the severity of the crime and its effect on the youth.
The trafficking ring was being run through three submodules. The Orient Express group had around 300 members and a majority of them were consumers and street-level peddlers. There were six verified suppliers in the group.
The Dred module was a webpage on Darknet for review rating and internal performance appraisal of India-based dealers. “Foreign vendors used this rating for authentication and supply. Dark Net Market (DNM) was an India-based web platform to sell and buy drugs, locate suppliers and buyers and assess quality of product,” disclosed Singh.
The module allegedly exploited couriers and India Post by taking advantage of a scrutiny that did not require genuine identification documents and KYC verification.
“A majority of those arrested were tech savvy, enjoyed the thrill of dodging police, had disturbed childhoods or family problems and were highly influenced by western culture,” said DDG Singh. “They enjoyed the fame in the virtual world earned through reviews of their products. They advocated purity of drugs supplied by them. Some of them even supported the use of drugs, claiming that the drugs took them closer to meditation and god and improved their performance. Some had suicidal tendencies.”
The NCB will soon file its charges in the case, officers said.
The NCB has arrested 22 traffickers but not the users, whose count crossed 300 in a single Telegram group operated by the syndicate, officials said. Rs 22.5 lakh was seized in cash besides various synthetic drugs. NCB also tracked Rs 2 crore in cryptocurrency, but hasn’t been able to recover it.
The cartel used a technique called drop shipping to deliver drugs to the user. This involved tier1 (main) drug vendors making deliveries to tier-1 drop-shippers in India who stored it at clandestine warehouses. The drop shippers sold the drugs in the country through delivery agents, thereby cutting the chain between the source and the destination, officials said.
Confirming TOI’s report, the NCB said in a statement that they took assistance of National Disaster Response Force divers to retrieve evidence from a waterbody during the raid in which a constable of NCB was also arrested, along with others. “As many as 22 active members of the syndicate were arrested in simultaneous raids in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Assam, Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The drugs were sourced from countries like the US, UK, Netherlands and Poland,” said Gyaneshwar Singh, NCB deputy director general.
The NCB recovered 975 blotters of LSD and 1.5kg of MDMA crystals, apart from liquid and paste of cannabis and other drugs.
The NCB personnel who connived with the main accused and helped destroy evidence is currently in judicial custody.
Post arrest, the accused were taken on remand. The bail pleas of all the 22 arrested have been rejected because of the severity of the crime and its effect on the youth.
The trafficking ring was being run through three submodules. The Orient Express group had around 300 members and a majority of them were consumers and street-level peddlers. There were six verified suppliers in the group.
The Dred module was a webpage on Darknet for review rating and internal performance appraisal of India-based dealers. “Foreign vendors used this rating for authentication and supply. Dark Net Market (DNM) was an India-based web platform to sell and buy drugs, locate suppliers and buyers and assess quality of product,” disclosed Singh.
The module allegedly exploited couriers and India Post by taking advantage of a scrutiny that did not require genuine identification documents and KYC verification.
“A majority of those arrested were tech savvy, enjoyed the thrill of dodging police, had disturbed childhoods or family problems and were highly influenced by western culture,” said DDG Singh. “They enjoyed the fame in the virtual world earned through reviews of their products. They advocated purity of drugs supplied by them. Some of them even supported the use of drugs, claiming that the drugs took them closer to meditation and god and improved their performance. Some had suicidal tendencies.”
The NCB will soon file its charges in the case, officers said.