Cocaine worth Rs 6.4 cr seized from Peru national

The Peruvian man, identified as Armando Lopez Reyes, had arrived in an Emirates flight (EK 510) from Sao Paulo (Brazil) to New Delhi (via Dubai) on April 13, said a police source.

Interestingly, around three weeks ago, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Custom officials had apprehended two South African women, who were allegedly carrying cocaine evaluated at around Rs 50 crore in the international market, from IGI Airport. They had also arrived in the same Emirates EK 510 flight. In the said route, there is only one Emirates flight (EK 262) that goes till Dubai. From Dubai, the passengers can board any of the three – EK 510, EK 514 or EK 516 flights.

“Lopez Reyes is being jointly interrogated by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police and NCB. The objective is to crack open the Sao Paulo-Delhi drug-route (dealing mainly in cocaine), which we have stumbled upon lately,” said a senior police official. He further said, Lopez told the police that he was to deliver the consignment to one Ali in Delhi, who is still at large. Delhi Police is now trying to nab Ali as early as possible for more leads in the case.

However, both NCB and the police have ruled out possibilities of the loading of cocaine taking place in Dubai. “But we are definitely probing a possible insider role in connection to these cases,” said a senior NCB official.

Till date, narcotics sleuths in Delhi dealt mostly with international drug syndicates that operated in the Golden Crescent drugs route (Afghanistan -Pakistan -Baramulla in J&K-Delhi) – infamous for rampant trade of heroin, headquartered mostly from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and the final selling point allegedly being European nations – and the Golden Triangle drugs route (Delhi-North East India-Myanmar-India) – known for conversion of Pseudo Ephedrine into Methamphetamine, most of which is later allegedly pumped into North America.

Now the agencies are developing intelligence network to crack open the Sao Paulo-Delhi cocaine route, said a source in NCB. In this case, the police had earlier evaluated the recovery at Rs 65 crore, which would have made this the largest cocaine recovery in India. But later, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ravindra Yadav, clarified that the cocaine recovered was actually worth around Rs 6.5 crore and not Rs 65 crore. However, it was still the largest cocaine haul in the history of Delhi Police. And the nearly Rs 50 crore cocaine haul by NCB in March 2015, remains the biggest in India so far.