The accused used different internet calling apps and app-based delivery services for their clients to place orders and receive the consignments. (File)The Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested seven persons, including an IIM dropout, a fashion designer and an MBA student, in three different operations for allegedly smuggling drugs with the help of the dark net, police said Thursday.
It is learnt that the accused used different internet calling apps and app-based delivery services for their clients to place orders and receive the consignments.
Sources said that students of colleges and schools were also employed by the accused to sell the drugs at different institutes, hotels and parties. In 3 different operations, the police seized over 28 blotting papers of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 12.6 gm of MDMA (a synthetic drug), 84 gm of curated marijuana and 220 gm of hashish.
According to the police, the accused used the darknet to access websites where they would contact drug dealers from Russia and Canada and ask them to supply MDMA and marijuana to India. Police said the drugs were smuggled in through courier services or from porous India- Nepal border or India- Bangladesh borders.
To attract a customer base, the accused used app-based services to facilitate door-step delivery of drugs to the customers. To evade arrests, the men were using internet calling apps and private messaging apps to place orders and communicate.
KPS Malhotra, DCP (Crime Branch) said, “The gangs revealed that they rope in youngsters as their primary consumers. College students are first trapped into drug addiction on their campuses and then they are lured into selling narcotics to meet their financial requirements.”
In the first operation, a 22-year-old MBA student was arrested from Wazirabad Road in Delhi with curated marijuana. His interrogation revealed details of his drug supplier, who was arrested from Chattarpur. Police said he is a BBA graduate.
In the second operation, a 28-year-old IIM dropout was arrested from Kirti Nagar based on a tip off. The man was arrested with 28 blotting papers of LSD and 12.06 gm of MDMA. “He disclosed that he has been selling the party drug for three years. He procures them from a person in Paschim Vihar. The drug supplier was also apprehended. We found another person, a fashion designer, involved in the gang and arrested him from Gurgaon,” Malhotra said.
In the last operation, two persons were arrested while they were driving on the Burari flyover. Police seized 220 gm of ‘Malana cream’ hashish from their possession. The accused had already been booked under NDPS Act in April in Himachal Pradesh and were released on bail in May.
“The dealers would go to Malana village and nearby areas to procure the contraband. The punishment in such cases is dependent on the seizure amount. In case of LSD seizure, stringent provisions of NDPS Act are added and the accused might not get bail easily,” said an officer.