In a pan-India operation, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested 22 persons, including four women, for their alleged involvement in procurement and sale of drugs via darknet, largely in small quantities. Among the accused are a software engineer, financial analyst, fashion designer and a musician.
A key accused has been identified as Raghunath Kumar. Nicknamed “LCD king”, he is lodged in Karnataka’s Bellari Jail from where he had been operating, according to the NCB. He had allegedly authored a guideline for buying, packaging and selling drugs; and using cryptocurrencies, India Post, pseudonyms, fake IDs and changing addresses frequently for evading detection.
The other main operators are Jasbir Singh (for whom Raghunath was a “godfather”), his girlfriend Shraddha Surana, Krunal Golwala and his wife Dixita, Akash Mehra, Sidharath, Parichay Arora and Mohammed Aslam, it is alleged. Accused Aditya Reddy, a medical student, also used drugs to experiment on mentally disabled patients. Most of the drug peddlers did not know one another’s identities.
The drugs were being procured from the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Poland via India Post parcel service. While the accused made payments in cryptocurrencies, they received money via PayTM and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) accounts. They operated on various digital platforms, including Telegram.
During the four-month-long operation, the agency identified three groups: a Telegram group comprising 300 members and six verified suppliers; a darkweb page for review rating of India-based drug dealers and a web platform for sale/purchase of drugs.
The NCB-Delhi registered four cases and made arrests from Delhi, the national capital region, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam. An NCB constable was also arrested for helping Jasbir destroy evidence, a mobile phone, said the agency.
The accused persons fall in the 20-35 age group. Many of them had a troubled childhood or family life; at least two were victims of child sexual abuse. Some had started consuming drugs as teens and they graduated to become peddlers and dealers. A businessman and his wife started selling drugs after he suffered losses during the pandemic.
The NCB got the breakthrough while gathering inputs on the seizure of 44 unclaimed parcels by its Kolkata unit from the post office. They contained drugs concealed in different articles. A follow-up action led the agency to a young software engineer who operated under a pseudonym “Sarvo”. Subsequent investigations resulted in the arrest of other accused persons and seizure of more drugs.
The agency found that some of the phones used by the accused were customised for darknet usage, to mask the IP address of the device. “Some group members taught others the ways to evade detection by the NCB and destroy evidence,” said an official.
The official said the NCB was coordinating with the courier companies, social media platforms and financial intermediaries to keep a watch on anyone indulging in buying or selling drugs, which are punishable offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
