Carrier's arrest leads to roadblock of probe, says NCB

A major problem that Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sleuths face while probing a case wherein drugs are smuggled by a foreign syndicate is that once the carries are caught, the probe virtually hits a roadblock.

“Foreign based drug-lords operate on need to know basis. There are various levels of people involved in the entire chain of the syndicate. The first level comprises of main drug-lord, who gives drugs to his man, who in turns scouts for carriers or mules. They then rope in mules and hand them over drugs. The drug-lord then coordinates with his contact in Mumbai or India, who in turn send his man to collect drug from the mules,” said an NCB official.

“The handlers of mules never give their actual identity to the mules. The mule only has a mobile number on which he need to send his photograph once he safely reaches the hotel with drugs. The mule does not even has contact of the person of the recipient. Hence once we nab the mules, we do not get any other link of the syndicate and the probe hits a roadblock,” said the official.

The agency sources said that, they share the name and contact number of the handler which they receive from the carrier or mules, with the officials of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi. “The MEA then shares the said details of the handler to the enforcement agencies of the country from where the drug was exported. It is for the foreign agencies then to work on the information shared by us and revert back to us with more information about the syndicate. It is a long drawn process,” the official said.