Ragpicker held for running ganja syndicate

A ragpicker from South Delhi’s Madanpur Khadar has been arrested for running a multi-million rupee drug trade and supplying ganja across Delhi and other parts of the country.

Two alleged suppliers have also been arrested leading to the seizure of 160 kg of the contraband, said the police.

Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) P.S. Kushwah said the cell had been working on a tip off that one Mohammad Hafiz was involved in sale of huge quantity of narcotics substance (ganja) in Delhi/NCR.

“Accordingly, sources were deployed in Delhi and other places to identify this narcotic syndicate. In the early hours of Sunday, we received an information that two persons, Babu Roy and Jeevan Mondol, would come from Orissa to deliver a huge consignment of ganja to Hafiz in Jaitpur,” said Mr Kushwah.

A police team led by inspector Kailash Singh Bisht then swung into action and laid a trap on Jaitpur-Kalindi Kunj Pusta road.

“We had inputs that they would come in a Maruti vehicle with a West Bengal registration number. Once that the vehicle had come, the team saw another Vento car reaching within minutes as both cars moved towards. Then, the occupants started transferring the packets,” said Mr Kushwah.

The raiding party then reached near the vehicles and overpowered the occupants, from whom 16 packets of narcotic drug, weighing around 160 kg, was recovered. Hafiz, Babu and Jeevan were arrested.

Another police officer said that Hafiz has been in the trade for the past few years and in the past one year, he had purchased over 3,500 kg of ganja, estimated to be priced over Rs 1 crore in Delhi.

“He has other suppliers too. We suspect the volume of trade could be much higher. We are also trying to ascertain the areas where he delivered the ganja,” said the officer.

Seizure of drugs by the Narcotics Control Bureau in the national capital region saw a spike during the 2015-16 financial year as about 225 kgs of contraband was seized here from international peddling cartels, in which women too were involved.

According to the latest data of the Narcotics Control Bureau, the central agency tasked to combat drugs menace in the country, arrested a total of 27 peddlers during the fiscal, which included 18 foreigners. The agency also seized 225 kgs of various category of narcotics.