New Delhi, Sep 21 : In one the biggest seizures of Heroin, about 312 kg meth and 10 kg of heroin which were to be peddled in India were seized by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.
According to the police, the Special Cell recovered 20 tones of Licorice roots soaked with Heroin. Total narcotics soaked in the licorice consignment estimated to be around 345 kg. Two Afghan nationals, Mustafa Stanikzai and Rahimullah Rahimi, were arrested in the case.
The consignment of drug laced licorice roots (Mulethi) was stored in a container at (Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust) JNPT Port in Mumbai which was to be brought to Delhi for extracting and further distribution. Total international value of the seized contraband estimated to be around Rs 1725 crore, HGS Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Delhi Police, said.
The continuous efforts further lead to an information about a consignment of Licorice roots which was stored at JNPT Mumbai. It was revealed that 17 bags containing Licorice Roots soaked with Heroin, 350 to 400 gm per kg (amounting to a total of 345 kg of contraband) were concealed among other bags.
It was learnt that during the preliminary examination by the authorities the entire consignment had already been checked and in the process, the bags had got damaged and the Licorice roots were lying inside the container.
Finally, the team started to inspect each and every stick of the consignment following which it was observed that the color of some of the sticks of Licorice root was darker than the others then the team detected Heroin in all the sticks that were darker in color, Dhaliwal said.
The concealed contraband was transported in containers to port of a neighboring country, from where it landed at different ports of India. This time the consignment was first transported from Afghanistan to a neighboring country, from where it was shipped to a Middle-East country to avoid detection by the agencies. From there, the consignment containing the contraband blended with legitimate import goods was further shipped to JNPT in Mumbai, claimed police.
This consignment was supposed to reach the makeshift factories based in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and other states at opportune time for its further extraction/ processing to get the final product Heroin.
