Date:13/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/13/stories/2008101359120900.htm

Kerala

DRI exposes a Chandigarh-based heroin smuggling racket

G. Anand

Youths from north Kerala were used as carriers

Preventive detention warrant issued against suspected kingpin Rajesh Bharadwaj
Some licensed opium farmers in North India diverted part of their yield to black market

Thiruvananthapuram: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has exposed a Chandigarh-based drug racket which often used young and uneducated job-seekers from north Kerala as carriers to smuggle heroin into Saudi Arabia, chiefly through the Kozhikode airport at Karipur.

On the recommendation of the DRI, the State government has issued a preventive detention warrant against Rajesh Bharadwaj, suspected kingpin of the racket and a prominent hotelier in Chandigarh. It has been issued mainly in connection with the DRI’s seizure of 11 kg of heroin from two locations in Kozhikode this April.

The other suspects are Habib Rehman of Malappuram, Kiran Kumar of Bhawani Mandi in Rajasthan and Gurudattan Singh, a travelling ticket examiner of the Indian Railways.

The DRI’s case is that Kiran procured the heroin from one Chottu of Bhawani Mandi (a small town known for its licensed cultivation of opium) and transferred the consignment (allegedly with the help of Gurudattan) to Habib. Kiran and Habib had worked together in the Gulf.

The DRI said that Habib regularly transferred a share of the proceeds from the sale of drugs in Saudi Arabia to Rajesh’s bank account. The account showed transactions amounting to crores of rupees.

Officials said certain licensed opium farmers in North India illegally diverted a part of their yield for sale in the black market at several times the official procurement price.

Heroin made from the illegally diverted opium gum is smuggled in relatively small quantities to Saudi Arabia where it is sold at a much higher rate to local drug users. The DRI said that at least 12 Kerala youth were executed in Saudi Arabia on the charge of smuggling drugs in the past two years.

They said smugglers frequently recruited carriers from among poor unskilled workers seeking jobs in the Gulf.

At least some of those executed in Saudi Arabia could have been tricked into carrying the drug believing that it was some innocent parcel. In exchange for their service, the drug smugglers would have offered them a subsidised job visa or a free airline ticket.

Since 1996, the Saudi Arabian Government has executed over 200 foreigners on the charge of smuggling and peddling drugs. A considerable number of them were Keralites, some of them professional carriers who used fake passports for their heroin smuggling runs into Saudi Arabia.