Kingpin of international drug racket held in Chennai, brought to Surat

Surat: The Surat city crime branch captured kingpin of an international drug racket from Chennai in Tamil Nadu and brought him to Surat on Monday. The alleged international drug dealer identified as Thaga Gani alias Shahjahan, was arrested after an operation in Chennai on Feb 12. He was produced before a metropolitan court in Chennai, where police obtained his transit remand before bringing him to Surat for further investigation.
Police said Thaga Gani had previously apprehended in 1999 in a copyright-related case in Chennai. Further probe was underway to trace the wider network involved in the international drug trafficking racket, the police said.Thaga Gani's name surfaced after an international racket was busted in Dec 22 last year with the arrested of two Chennai residents — Mohammad Iqbal Ahmed Khan Niyamatullah Khan and Rasiya Abdul Kapoor — at Surat airport. The Surat detection of crime branch (DCB) sleuths had recovered 17.66 kg of hybrid cannabis valued at Rs 6.18 crore from the duo acting as drug carriers. The contraband had allegedly been smuggled from Bangkok and brought to Surat in two trolley bags.During interrogation, police learnt that the consignment was sent from Bangkok by Thameem alias Tameem Ibrahim Ansari, a resident of Chennai. Ansari who had travelled from Chennai to Surat to collect the narcotics and the carriers, was subsequently nabbed by the crime branch on the same day.Further investigation revealed that the contraband was allegedly ordered by Thaga Gani, also based in Chennai. Based on technical surveillance and human intelligence inputs, a special team of the Surat crime branch was dispatched to Tamil Nadu, which nabbed Thaga Gani on Feb 12.