NEW DELHI: In the largest-ever drug haul, a series of operations conducted over the past one week by Delhi Police’s Special Cell led to the arrest of a dozen smugglers and recovery of over 83 kilograms of heroin valued at Rs 350 crore in the international market.The raids by teams led by DCPs Pramod Kushwaha and Sanjeev Yadav resulted in the arrest of drug mules from Afghanistan, Manipur, Assam, UP, Nigeria and Delhi. The cartels were involved in trans-border procurement of drugs from Myanmar and Afghanistan. A chunk of these drugs was shipped to western countries through courier firms.A detailed route taken by the cartels was identified by police. Trucks carrying other consignments brought in drugs in small quantities (50-100kg) on the Myanmar-Manipur-Assam route. The drugs were also pushed into the country from Mandalay and Bhamo of northeast Myanmar and stashed in warehouses in Moreh of Manipur. The consignment would pass uninterrupted through NH-2 and would be taken to the final destination by cars, SUVs and taxis. The second route is through Bihar and UP, while the third involves the Afghanistan-India air route.The first operation was conducted by a team led by ACPs Lalit Mohan Negi and Hriday Bhushan in which three Afghan nationals — Ehsanullah, Amin and Abdul Razzak — were arrested from Lajpat Nagar with 2kg grade-A heroin worth Rs 8 crore. The trio led police to one Emmanuel from Nigeria, who was nabbed from Maidangarhi. Cops also seized 4,000 medicines from his house which were sold as psychotropic substances.The second operation was conducted by inspector Shiv Kumar’s team leading to a recovery of 44.5kg heroin and arrest of three people, including the woman kingpin from Assam. A trap was laid at Indraprastha Park and an autorickshaw was intercepted. Two men, identified as Dhanji Singh and Dheeraj Kumar, were arrested with 21kg heroin in their bags. They disclosed that they had procured the drugs from a woman named Shamuta Bano based in Nagaon, Assam. Bano was arrested in a raid and 23.5kg of heroin was seized from her house.Bano procured crude heroin — shipped by the Golden Triangle-based cartels — at a cheap rate from Manipur. The drugs were sent to makeshift labs in Bihar where they were processed using chemicals and converted to fine-quality heroin. The heroin was sent to Siliguri in West Bengal and then shipped to Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.In the third operation, inspector Puran Pant’s team developed intelligence about a module being run by one Tasleem Mamu from Nawabganj in Bareilly. The team got a tip-off that Mamu had sent a huge consignment in a Duster SUV, which was to be delivered to one Nasir in Prahladpur. The SUV, driven by two men named Sikander and Umar, was intercepted and a search of their bags resulted in seizure of 32kg heroin. Drug packets were found hidden inside the deflated stepney.In the fourth raid, the same team seized 4kg heroin from three men named Ankush, Amit and Mukesh travelling in in a Huyndai Xcent car from Rohini.

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