Heroin worth Rs 25 crore seized from 3 foreign nationals

NEW DELHI: A team of Delhi Police Special Cell has busted an international narcotics cartel and has arrested three key members of the cartel.

The trio was arrested last Tuesday around 1.15 am near the exit gate of Max Hospital in south Delhi's Saket.

The arrested accused were identified as Afghan nationals Esmatullah (40) and Khalilullah (22), both residents of Delhi's Hauz Rani, and Victor Osondu (37), a Nigerian national residing in Vikas Puri.

Five kg of heroin, worth Rs 25 crore in the international market, was recovered from the trio, including two kg from Osondu, one kg from Esmatullah and two kg from Khalilullah.

Apart from the narcotics, $4,200 handed over by Osondu to Esmatullah as part payment for the heroin was also recovered by the Special Cell.

It also registered a case under appropriate sections of the law.

On September 17, the Special Cell received a tip-off that Esmatullah and Khalilullah would deliver a consignment of heroin to Osondu near the exit gate of Saket Hospital between 1 and 1.30 am the next day.

A trap was laid and, subsequently, the trio was arrested.

"They disclosed that they have been supplying heroin in Delhi and adjoining states for the last three years. The Afghan nationals used to bring consignments of heroin in Delhi from Afghanistan and hand over the same to many Nigerian nationals, one of them being Osondu. The two sometimes used to smuggle the consignments inside their stomachs by swallowing heroin-filled capsules and sometimes in secret cavities of their bags by air," said PS Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).