City becoming hub for heroin smuggling, 120 kg seized so far
2 Aug 2014 4:24 AM IST
After the recovery of 36 kg of heroin on Wednesday, worth more than Rs 150 crore in the international market, heroin recovery so far in 2014 stood at around 121.15 kg, reveals records of Delhi Police.
Two Afghan nationals, who were arrested, revealed that the heroin was channelled through Pakistan.
From Delhi it was repacked and distributed, said AS Cheema, Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Cell). He further said, ‘this consignment contained around 75 percent morphine in it which makes it highly expensive, and hence a reasonable conclusion can be drawn that this was going to be exported from Delhi.’
There is a pungent smell around heroin labs, which makes it impossible for them to run in cities like Delhi. ‘Though there was a heroin lab once busted at Vijay Vihar in outer Delhi several years ago. But Delhi still is a big trade centre,’ said the senior official.
‘But Delhi certainly happens to be the centre, where the finished products are dropped and then redistributed across India. The large part of the consignment goes to south Indian states and abroad, largely the South Asian countries,’ said Cheema.
He further added that to contain this menace security needs to be strengthened in the railways and along the city borders. ‘This particular gang, from whom 36 kg of heroin was recovered, brought the drugs in Thar Express that connects India to northern Pakistan. Sniffing dogs could have easily busted this gang then and there in the train,’ he added.
As narrated by a police official, heroin that is sold on the streets of the national capital by the peddlers and dealers, are mostly produced in certain regions of Madhya Pradesh that include Mandsaur and Bhawani Mandi.
He further said, A chemical called acetic anhydride – an essential component in sedatives and painkillers – converts poppy into heroin. For the locally manufactured heroin available in Delhi streets, the poppies are siphoned off from the authorised poppy cultivation belt in the border of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. And the acetic anhydride is siphoned of basically from the pharmaceutical industry spread across the nation, largely from Gujarat.
In May, there was another such case, where seven kilograms of fine quality heroin was recovered from a duo operating in Delhi. One of them hailed from Kerala. Interrogations in that case led police to one of the prime accused involved in Wednesday’s 36 kg heroin recovery, the official added.
Two Afghan nationals, who were arrested, revealed that the heroin was channelled through Pakistan.
From Delhi it was repacked and distributed, said AS Cheema, Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Cell). He further said, ‘this consignment contained around 75 percent morphine in it which makes it highly expensive, and hence a reasonable conclusion can be drawn that this was going to be exported from Delhi.’
There is a pungent smell around heroin labs, which makes it impossible for them to run in cities like Delhi. ‘Though there was a heroin lab once busted at Vijay Vihar in outer Delhi several years ago. But Delhi still is a big trade centre,’ said the senior official.
‘But Delhi certainly happens to be the centre, where the finished products are dropped and then redistributed across India. The large part of the consignment goes to south Indian states and abroad, largely the South Asian countries,’ said Cheema.
He further added that to contain this menace security needs to be strengthened in the railways and along the city borders. ‘This particular gang, from whom 36 kg of heroin was recovered, brought the drugs in Thar Express that connects India to northern Pakistan. Sniffing dogs could have easily busted this gang then and there in the train,’ he added.
As narrated by a police official, heroin that is sold on the streets of the national capital by the peddlers and dealers, are mostly produced in certain regions of Madhya Pradesh that include Mandsaur and Bhawani Mandi.
He further said, A chemical called acetic anhydride – an essential component in sedatives and painkillers – converts poppy into heroin. For the locally manufactured heroin available in Delhi streets, the poppies are siphoned off from the authorised poppy cultivation belt in the border of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. And the acetic anhydride is siphoned of basically from the pharmaceutical industry spread across the nation, largely from Gujarat.
In May, there was another such case, where seven kilograms of fine quality heroin was recovered from a duo operating in Delhi. One of them hailed from Kerala. Interrogations in that case led police to one of the prime accused involved in Wednesday’s 36 kg heroin recovery, the official added.
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