With the arrest of two Afghan Nationals, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Tuesday claimed to have busted ‘transnational drug cartel’ and seized 312 kilograms of methamphetamine, biggest haul this year, along with 10 kg of heroin. Police said that the international value of the seized contraband is estimated to be over Rs 1200 crores.

The accused have been identified as Mustafa Stanikzai (23), a resident of Kabul in Afghanistan and Rahimullah Rahimi (44), a resident of Kandahar in Afghanistan. Police said that Stanikzai was presently living at Khadda Colony near Jaitpur while Rahimi, was residing at Unitech Horizon in Greater Noida. Addressing a press conference, H G S Dhaliwal, the Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell said that on September 3, specific inputs were received that two Afghan nationals, Rahimullah and Mustafa, were reaching Delhi in a luxury Skoda Superb car and were expected to be carrying some contraband with them.

“Acting on the inputs, a trap was laid and both were apprehended from near Kalindi Kunj Metro Station. On cursory check police recovered 1.360 kgs of heroin from the possession of Mustafa while another 1.040 kgs of heroin was recovered from the possession of Rahimullah,” said the Special CP. “Since the intel pointed towards a bigger consignment that was being shepherded by the apprehended duo, quick, intense interrogation at the spot was carried out. This succeeded in extracting information regarding a white colour Mahindra Pickup which was trailing Rahimullah and Mustafa,” said the Special CP. “However, the Mahindra pickup was intercepted near SDMC Toll, Kalindi Kunj and during the search of onboard 16 bags, white crystalline material was found. This suspect chemical was checked using the narcotic field testing kit which revealed that nine out of 16 bags were containing contraband Methamphetamine,” said Special CP.

“The contraband containing bags were weighed and total weight was recorded to be approximately 311.4 Kgs.

 The contraband was concealed in bags bearing markings of silica, for methamphetamine and silica resemble each other in appearance and it makes almost impossible for a human eye to distinguish between the two,” said the Special CP.

“Various other chemicals and a glass container used for refining contraband were also subsequently recovered from the house of accused Mustafa,” said the Special CP.

“On interrogation, Rahimullah had also disclosed about more contraband kept in a car parked in Noida. Accordingly, at his instance 1.09 Kg methamphetamine and 5.31 Kg heroin, in solid and liquid form, and 1.7 kg heroin coated dry fruits were also recovered from the boot of a white color Toyota Etios car, parked at Chainsukh Market in Greater Noida,” said the Special CP.

Explaining the modus operandi of the cartel, the Special CP said that the methamphetamine being pushed into India is concealed in different legitimate export articles which include silica gel, talc stone, gypsum powder, basil seeds etc.

“From the processing labs in Afghanistan, the contraband usually reaches a port of the neighboring country and gets containerized for various seaport destinations in India. Wherever reconstitution or purification is required, the contraband after exiting Indian seaports is transported to make shift factories based in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi and Haryana,” said the Special CP.

“Local Indian associates of the master Afghan experts process the methamphetamine and heroin. After the desired purity and strength is achieved, the contraband then gets pushed through a chain of peddlers to the end-consumer,” said the Special CP.