A day after arrest of the mastermind of Rs 700 crore drug haul Jagdish Bhola, the preliminary investigations on Tuesday have unveiled an “intricate and sophisticated network” of supply of synthetic drugs to markets in Europe, Canada and the UK.
Bhola, the kingpin of a massive synthetic drug racket, was arrested by Punjab Police on Monday from near New Delhi along with four associates. The initial inquiries also revealed that Bhola’s associates were involved in large number of cases of vehicle theft, carjacking, drug smuggling. “Preliminary questioning revealed that drugs would be transported from India to foreign countries primarily by using air cargo, and, also through human couriers. Camouflaging of air cargo used innovative techniques like hiding the contraband in the heels of footwear, books, false cavities in containers, ladies suits, condiment and food product boxes, and even picture frames of religious personalities,” said Patiala SSP Hardyal Singh Mann.
He said that as per interrogation of arrested persons, over 300 kgs of synthetic drugs like Ice (M-amphetamine) and other high-quality drugs like heroin were smuggled out of India by Bhola-controlled drug racket.
“The network operated in a sophisticated manner using cut-outs, different persons for packing and packaging, transportation, receiving and distributing the consignment of contrabands. Among other modus-operandi, sports clubs based in Canada and Europe were used for distribution of contraband consignments,” he added.
The disclosures also revealed involvement of Chinese, Vietnamese and other foreign nationals in the drug racket, who were involved in preparation of synthetic drugs from precursor chemicals. “Important clues for their identification have been developed and are being shared with appropriate agencies for legal follow-up regarding their criminal liability,” added the SSP. During investigation, the recipients of contraband consignments of Bhola network include the promoter of Azad Kabaddi Club, a famous sports outfit in Toronto, Dara Singh Mathoda, and a former Kabaddi player Sarabjit Singh - both presently staying in Vancouver.
During the search of Bhola’s Patel Nagar house in New Delhi, a visa stamping machine, 26 passports and other documents have been recovered. The state Director General of Police Sumedh Saini has granted Director General’s Commendation Disc to AIG, CI, Operations Simratpal Singh Dhindsa, SP Rajpura Bhupinder Singh Khatra and DSP, Counter Intelligence, Tejinderjit Singh Virk in recognition of good work done by these officers in developing available operational leads and conducting tracking and trapping of infamous drug racketeers.
“Further investigations in the drug racket are being conducted in order to completely expose the networking and contacts in an end-to-end manner. liaison with outside agencies, other police organizations, examination of equipments and documents recovered from the Patel Nagar hideout of Jagdish Bhola is being done by the Counter Intelligence Wing under the supervision of Inspector General of Police, Counter Intelligence, Gaurav Yadav,” added Patiala SSP.