Int’l drug racket busted, three men including 2 Sri Lankans held

With the arrest of three men (including two Sri Lankans), an alleged international drug cartel has been busted in Chennai by a team of Delhi Police. In the joint operation, 16 kgs heroin worth Rs 50 crore in the international market was recovered by the police.

The gang, which used to supply drugs to Sri Lanka, packed them into crates of processed food cans as they seldom raised an eye brow and often passed undetected by sniffers or scanners.

After a tip-off given by the six accused persons who were arrested in July with a consignment of 36 kgs of heroin. ‘They had disclosed that they reported to one Mailu Perumal, a resident of Chennai who was the main downlink for foreign based narco-mafias,’ the police official said.

‘A team of Special Cell worked patiently for the next four months to locate Perumal in the suburbs of Chennai. The efforts bore fruit when a specific input was received that Perumal has accumulated a large consignment of heroin at a safe house in Chennai. The consignment was to be received by some Sri Lankan nationals who had arrived in India,’ Rajeev Ranjan Deputy Commissioner of police (Special Cell) said.

On Saturday, in a joint operation of Special Cell and Chennai Police three accused identified as Mayelerum Perumal, Jawzeek MR and Mohammad Razik MS, from Sri Lanka, were arrested. 

During preliminary interrogation, it has been learnt that the heroin, was smuggled into India from Afghanistan via Pakistan using Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan borders.  After the packaging is done in packaged food containers, the consignment is sent to Sri Lanka’, the DCP said. Since the past few months, the Special Cell has been working on trans-national narcotics syndicate and has seized approximately 130 kgs of fine quality heroin worth approximately 400 Crore Rupees in international market.