NCB finds charas in water purifier; franchise owner of top courier firm arrested

The Narcotics Control Bureau NCB has arrested the owner of a Dahisarbased DTDC franchise after his role surfaced in the attempted smuggling of nearly 5 kg of charas concealed in a water purifier to Australia It has been found to be one of the biggest international rackets where hawala money was being used to deliver drugs from one country to another said officers The agency has also unearthed the role of a Canadabased NRI as the kingpin of the racketThe agency seized the consignment of 4880 kg of charas worth Rs 50 lakh on June 10 and raided the premises of DTDC franchise in Dahisar on Saturday The package was being sent with the fake identity of the consignor senderThe NCB said that as per the probe it is one of the biggest international rackets where hawala money has been used to deliver drugs from one country to another The role of a Canadabased NRI has surfaced as the kingpin of the racket The agency did not reveal the personrsquos identityAlso read Ugandan woman hides cocaine heroin capsules inside her body held at Mumbai airportIn nut bolts in another incidentldquoA team of NCB Mumbai seized 4880 kg of charas in Mumbai on June 10 The seized drugs concealed in a special cavity made inside a water purifier The parcel was destined to Australiardquo said NCB Zonal Director Amit Ghawate The officers then started tracking the consignor and apprehended him then got the link of the DTDC franchise owner identified as Shrikant Pingale and the courier agent apprehended by the agency was identified as Pawan Yadav ldquoDuring the preliminary interrogation it was found that the courier franchise owner is also involved in drug trafficking The courier agent sent the parcel without verification of the identity of the consignee receiver He has sent parcels many times before on the instructions of the main receiverrdquo Ghawate saidThe court has remanded the accused to the NCBrsquos custodyNCB found 490 grams of Methamphetamine in the volt meter PicFaizan KhanDuring the course of interrogation and the evidence collected the agency got the link of one of the biggest drug networks that has been sending consignments using different modus operandi to Canada Australia the US New Zealand and other countries The officers have found that the Canadabased NRI used to visit India to make payments and the amount received through drugs was transferred using hawala ldquoFake identity was used by the consignor to ship the parcel through courier This network has sent many such types of parcels in the past The kingpin had created layers in the delivery networkrdquo Ghawate saidThe officers have found that Pingale has been involved in sending consignment by masking it as a normal courier since 2017 and he used to receive anywhere between Rs 75000 and R1 lakh for one courierNowadays drugs from India are being sent to other countries mainly using courier companies The role of courier companies has surfaced in a very few cases and in this case the accused seemed to be involved in the international racketrdquo an officer said The officers found out that Pingale has used DHL international courier services for the countries where he canrsquot deliver the consignment The NCB will now verify the role of the DHL courier franchise as wellIn two more operations the NCB has arrested one person from Navi Mumbai and seized 490 grams of Methamphetamine destined to New Zealand from Andheri The drug was concealed very carefully in the volt meter Another parcel destined to Australia was also tracked by the agency wherein 435 grams of Amphetamine was concealed in industrial nut boltsldquoDuring the preliminary investigation one person from Navi Mumbai has been apprehended in this connection He accepted that he was the consignor for both the parcelsrdquo said Ghawate4880 kgQuantity of charas that was seized on June 10