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Drug syndicate unearthed, two arrested

Staff Reporter

Heroin worth two crore recovered `The consignment was smuggled on board an Indian Airlines flight on April 7'

NEW DELHI: An international drug syndicate has been unearthed by the Special Cell of the Delhi police with the arrest of an Afghan national and a Nigerian at Dwarka here. The police claim to have recovered from them 1.97 kg of high quality heroin of Afghan origin valued at Rs. 2 crore in the international market.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Alok Kumar, a team led by Inspector Devender Singh received a tip-off that an Afghan national would deliver a consignment of heroin to someone near Ashirwad Chowk in Dwarka on Tuesday. Subsequently plainclothesmen laid a trap and arrested the two accused allegedly with the contraband. They were identified as Saleh Mohammad, a resident of Jalalabad in Afghanistan, and Augustine Okoye, a resident of Lagos in Nigeria.

During interrogation, Saleh purportedly disclosed that he smuggled in the consignment on board an Indian Airlines flight on April 7. He allegedly disclosed that a drug peddler named Fareed Pathan gave him the stuff in Afghanistan to hand it over to the Nigerian national in Delhi. The deal had been struck directly by Fareed. Saleh claimed that he smuggled in three consignments of heroin during his visits to India since last December. However, from his passport the police found that he visited India at least 10 times in the past one year. Saleh claimed that earlier he used to come here to purchase ladies' garments.

During interrogation, Augustine purportedly disclosed that he came to India about five months ago and had lost his passport. But the police suspect that he is telling lies. While the Nigerian and the Afghanistan embassies here have been informed about the arrests, efforts are on to track down other members of the drug cartel.

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