Organic cannabis, California weed, original gangster: Delhi police reveals shocking details of international drug trade targeting students

NEW DELHI: An international racket supplying organic cannabis, California weed, original gangster (OG) marijuana and MDMA crystals to school and college students in Delhi-NCR has been busted by Delhi Police's Crime Branch. Six alleged traffickers have been arrested. The syndicate was bringing in the contraband from Thailand via Manipur.

According to RS Yadav, special commissioner of police (Crime), the syndicate was supplying drugs to clients in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida through delivery services. "The suppliers were in touch with their clients in the various institutions on Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook," he disclosed.




The accused, arrested in two operations, have been identified as Nongmaitham Jashobanta Singh (36), Thiyam Rabikanta Singh (32), Rudransh Gupta (33), Lakshay Bhatia (24), Girik Aggarwal (21) and Khalid Zafar (23). Since Aggarwal was still in college, he had direct contact with the students he shared drugs with and then began supplying the drugs to them.

After receiving information about the cartel's operation, the Crime Branch formed a team led by DCP Amit Goel to initiate a crackdown. The information received suggested that the traffickers were active in well-known colleges and universities. Separate teams comprising inspectors Rakesh Sharma and Hariwansh Singh were also formed to pursue other angles.

A case under the NDPS Act was registered at the Crime Branch and informers were deployed. It was then discovered that one of the modules was involved in smuggling ganja from Manipur and Thailand into Delhi-NCR. It was also found that the drugs were being supplied from a rented accommodation at an upscale apartment in Moti Nagar. A plan was made to intercept the traffickers and the six men were nabbed.

During interrogation, the accused told the cops that Rabikanta used to smuggle Shillong weed from Manipur to Dimapur via road and then by train to Delhi. Jashobanta, on his part, brought weed from Thailand to Delhi by air. Officials said both would come and hand over the narcotics to Gupta, who had created a network of buyers on WhatsApp, Telegram and social media channels.

In the second Crime Branch operation, three people involved in trafficking organic ganja and MDMA in Delhi-NCR were arrested from Kanpur in UP. Fifteen grams of MDMA and 1,200 grams of organic ganja were recovered from their possession. The operation was organised after secret information reached the cops about an interstate drug syndicate of Kanpur that was supplying high-quality organic ganja and MDMA in Delhi and NCR cities.

A team also managed to nab Bhatiya from Dwarka while he was in possession of the drugs. The car used in the commission of crime was also seized.

Bhatiya told police that he and an associate supplied drugs to university students. At his instance, the associate, Aggrawal, was also arrested. Further, Bhatiya disclosed that whenever he needed drugs for supply to customers, he collected the contraband from Zafar of Kanpur through Aggrawal. A raid was conducted and Zafar, the main source of the recovered contraband and the mastermind of the gang, was arrested.

Bhatiya and Zafar had met each other during their college days in Noida. Later, both got addicted to drugs. They then realised that a large number of other students too were engaged in drugs and got into the business of supplying them with narcotics.

Police sources said that the current operations were an extension of the action taken against cigarette shops in the vicinity of schools. The drives have been undertaken on the instructions of Union home minister Amit Shah, who had directed lieutenant governor VK Saxena to initiate a crackdown on the sale of narcotics to school and college students, saying traffickers targeting youngsters should be dealt with stringently.