GURUGRAM: It’s the season of Michels for law-enforcement agencies.While one Michel — Christian — is in CBI custody for a high-profile, politically sensitive international chopper deal’s (AgustaWestland) investigation, another far removed from his namesake’s world of power and policy has popped up on the radar of police’s anti-narcotics teams in NCR.This Michel, believed to be Tanzania-based, thrives in obscurity and is low-profile, but lethal; he heads a drug cartel that has spread its tentacles all the way from Africa to the Indian subcontinent and organizes his operations from the encrypted confines of WhatsApp . That makes his operatives difficult to trace. The channels built by Michel, police say, are catering to the demand for high-end drugs like heroin and cocaine, which are on the rise in the city.And in WhatsApp, they have found a medium that suits their business model. Police say Michel and his local operatives direct operations in India through WhatsApp calls. Multiple layers of security and extensive use of the mobile app, which provides an untraceable, encrypted platform for communication, make the gang’s trail hard to track, sleuths say.The cartel, they add, sends most of the drugs to India via Afghanistan and through Nepal, Pakistan and even Bangladesh. Heroin consignments are concealed in timber, furniture and various other items, and reach Delhi from border areas via courier or cargo trucks. The handler is informed about the delivery of contraband through WhatsApp calls. Peddlers scheduled to receive the package from the handler — based in Delhi-NCR — are given limited information; they aren’t informed about the identity of the caller or any other gang member. The gang never operates through text messages or phone calls.The peddler, sleuths say, is usually called multiple times from international numbers to change the delivery point (this generally happens thrice) to prevent tracking. The peddler passes the drugs on to the end users.Last month, Haryana’s Special Task Force (STF) arrested a drug peddler, a Nigerian national, in Sikanderpur and recovered 3.2kg heroin worth Rs 12 crore from his possession. The drug was to be supplied to Christmas and New Year parties in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Jaipur and Udaipur. “With the large number of pubs and pars in Gurgaon, there is a high demand for banned substances, and new people are joining the drug trade sensing profits. We are trying to track the supply chain and the people involved in it,” a senior police officer said.An analysis of the mobile phone and interrogation of the Nigerian, Traore Ahmad (32), revealed the modus operandi of the gang. “It is very difficult to keep track of the gang, as they keep changing locations before making a delivery. This, coupled with the use of WhatsApp, ensures that they have several layers of security to throw cops off if they are being tracked,” a senior STF officer said.Many of those involved in drug-peddling, the police have found, are foreign students staying in rented accommodations on business visas. Investigations have revealed Ahmad arrived in Delhi on a three-month business visa in May 2017. After his visa expired, he allegedly made a fake visa stamp in October. “He is part of this cartel and used to get drugs from another Nigerian. We wrote to the embassy last week to get more details,” the officer said.On August 18 last year, the STF had busted a drug racket supplying heroin to different clubs and bars in the city, mostly on MG Road. They had arrested two drug peddlers, UC Okolie (40) and Yoco Kouadio (32), both Nigerians, near IFFCO Chowk and recovered around 1.5kg of heroin from them.

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