An fruit seller in Shimla was running an interstate drugs racket, under the garb of an apple business, for five to six years before the police finally caught up with him following a massive recovery of 465 gm of ‘chitta’ on September 20.
According to the police, the accused was able to evade law enforcement agencies for a long time as he ensured that the demand and supply chains operated like unrelated units. The orders were placed on WhatsApp following which supplies were initiated and the delivery made while the delivery person and the final receiver never saw each other, police said.
Police identified the accused as Shahi Mahatma (Shashi Negi), who was an apple trader in the upper Shimla region. They claimed to have busted the adulterated heroin racket through which the man and his 40 associates were supplying drugs in Rohru, Jubbal-Kotkhai and Theog areas while also having links with Nigerian drug gangs in New Delhi as well as other gangs in Haryana.
Police further said Shahi Mahatma (Shashi Negi) was the only common link between the demand and supply chain of ‘chitta’. “Links of the accused Mudasir Ahmed Mochi, a resident of Bhatpura village in Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir (who was arrested on September 19) were established with Shahi Mahatma alias Shashi Negi and the kingpin was arrested,” SP Shimla Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told PTI.
‘Drug changed four hands before being delivered’
Gandhi said as part of his modus operandi, Negi would ensure that the drug changes four hands before being delivered. He had hired different sets of unrelated people for bringing demand, supplying drugs and receiving payments, he said.
He further said the accused would never himself come in direct contact with any of the partners. The demand for drugs was generated on WhatsApp groups after verification of the drug user and the demand was forwarded to the accused, who had another team to supply the drugs, he added.
The SP further said at the time of final handover as well, the delivery person would keep the drug at an isolated place and a share a video to the buyer who would pick it up from there. As for the money, it reached Negi’s Dhan Laxmi account in Solan after travelling through different bank accounts, he said.
The people whose accounts were used during these transactions never knew it was drug money, police said. A fund flow of Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore was detected in the bank accounts of the accused in the past 15 months, they added.
Before Negi’s arrest, there were five FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act against nine persons who were part of the drug racket. A total of 25 associates of this gang have been arrested so far.
Gandhi also said the social integrated intelligence network system involving local residents as informers helped in registration of 650 cases and arrest of 1,100 drug peddlers including 205 interstate peddlers in Shimla district in the last 18 months.
For impact assessment, police will increase intensive patrolling and the reach of social networking. Education institutions and large public places will be kept under surveillance to prevent such drug peddlers, the SP added.
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