The jury is still out on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s liquor ban in his State but the Delhi police have stumbled upon an unintended beneficiary. The Crime Branch has busted a gang that would smuggle alcohol into Bihar on trucks and return with marijuana for distribution in the national capital. “The gang used to barter marijuana for alcohol,” said Alok Kumar, Joint CP (Crime).
On Thursday, three members of the gang were nabbed by the Crime Branch — Ravi, Munna Kumar Jha and Gaya Pal. While Gaya hails from Jharkhand’s Latehar district, the other two are from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. The police seized 700 kg marijuana loaded in a truck that the trio was transporting to be stored in Delhi for onward distribution to wholesalers as well as liquor suppliers in the region, said the police. “The arrested persons work for Bihar-based drug lord Vipin Kumar,” said Mr. Kumar.
A team of the Crime Branch received a tip-off about a huge consignment of marijuana belonging to Vipin being transported to a warehouse in Najafgarh, Delhi, in a truck from Odisha. A team supervised by DCP Bhisham Singh laid a trap near the destination point and apprehended the trio with their consignment. A case has been registered against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
50-strong syndicate
During interrogation, they revealed that Vipin’s syndicate has more than 50 members across several States. He procures marijuana from Maoist-affected areas of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh for distribution in Delhi-NCR. Proceeds from the marijuana sale go into the purchase of liquor from L1 godowns in Haryana and Punjab to be ferried to Bihar, and at times the two are simply bartered.
“Vipin buys it at ₹1,500 per kg and, depending on the quality, it is sold for up to ₹10,000 per kg to wholesalers in Delhi, Gurugram, Samalkha, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Noida,” said DCP Bhisham Singh.
While call records of the accused would be scanned to determine the routes the syndicate used to smuggle marijuana into the city, the police are interrogating the trio for information that might lead them to the kingpin, Vipin.