Gujarat police have arrested four persons over a period of one week and busted a major drug racket in which dealers from Ahmedabad had imported 100 kilograms of drugs, including cocaine, from the US as well as other parts of the country through air cargo courier in the last two years, an official said on Monday.
The main accused, identified as 27-year-old Vandit Patel, with the help of his aide Parth Sharma (32), had contacted US-based drug suppliers through the dark web and paid them Rs 4 crore in cryptocurrencies to obtain drugs, Ahmedabad district Superintendent of Police Virendrasingh Yadav said.
While Patel, who owns a salon in posh South Botal area of the city, and Sharma were held on November 17 with drugs worth Rs 3.5 lakh, two alleged peddlers, identified as Vipal Goswami and Jil Parate, were arrested on Monday, said Yadav.
While Patel did a hotel management course from Singapore in 2017-18, Goswami has an MBA from London in 2016, police said.
"Vandit Patel became an addict in 2012 and has considerable knowledge of drugs and their effect on the body. Two years ago, he entered this illegal trade and started obtaining drugs through air cargo from the US, the Netherlands, as well as Mumbai and Himachal Pradesh. He used to import high-end expensive party drugs such as cocaine, hybrid ganja, American charas, shatter, MDMA and magic mushrooms," Mr Yadav informed.
"To dodge the authorities, the senders used to declare the drugs as something else. A special kind of packing material used by US based drug suppliers led to it going undetected during Customs checks at airports. In all, he managed to obtain 100 kilograms of drugs in the last two years, paying nearly Rs 10 crore, including Rs 4 crore in cryptocurrencies," Mr Yadav added.
Patel had used over 50 addresses in various cities of Gujarat and Rajasthan to take nearly 300 drug deliveries, zeroing in on houses where no one was staying for long.
"When a parcel got returned, Patel used its tracking ID to contact the delivery person. Patel has even sent drugs from the US to his connections in China and New Zealand," Mr Yadav said.
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