New Delhi: The South-East district unit of the Delhi Police has dismantled an interstate narcotics trafficking network with the seizure of 183 kilograms of high-grade marijuana valued at approximately ₹1.5 crore in the illicit market. The major enforcement breakthrough, engineered by the district’s Anti-Auto Theft Squad (AATS), resulted in the arrest of three key syndicate members, including the absolute mastermind who coordinated the sophisticated supply chain across multiple Indian states.
Acting on precise intelligence gathered by field operatives on June 13, investigators learned that a large consignment of commercial-grade contraband was being transported into the National Capital Region (NCR) from Uttar Pradesh via the high-speed Mumbai Expressway. A specialized tactical team was immediately formed and strategically deployed near the Kalindi Kunj metro station to set up an administrative dragnet. At approximately 2:00 am on June 14, the targeted transport container truck was intercepted along the Kalindi Kunj-Madanpur Khadar road. While an initial visual inspection suggested a completely routine commercial cargo transit, a exhaustive structural search of the vehicle exposed a hidden, custom-engineered metal cabin built directly above the driver’s seating compartment, accessible exclusively through a tightly concealed hatch.
Inside the secret vault, officers discovered 38 uniform brick packets wrapped securely in brown adhesive waterproof tape, containing a total of 183 kilograms of processed marijuana. The two occupants of the truck, identified as 40-year-old Subodh Kumar Mishra and 36-year-old Brij Kishore Tiwari, both originating from the state of Bihar, were placed under arrest on the spot. During sustained custodial interrogation, the couriers conceded that they operated as specialized transit mules for a highly organized syndicate that systematically procured large commercial volumes of ganja from local cultivators in the remote forest belts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh for distribution to wholesale drug peddlers scattered throughout Delhi-NCR.
Further investigation and technical data analysis revealed that the entire illicit shipment was financed and executed at the direct behest of the truck’s registered owner, Shriram, who functioned as the kingpin of the trafficking network. By utilizing localized technical surveillance and tracking the digital footprints generated during the initial arrests, a Delhi Police raid team tracked down Shriram, arresting him from the temple town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. Police records indicate that Shriram is a habitual offender with a significant criminal history, having been previously implicated in three separate commercial-scale narcotics cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. A fresh criminal case has been registered under the stringent statutory provisions of the NDPS Act at the local police station, and teams are conducting further raids to trace the primary sourcing distributors in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
