Cops Bust Int'l Drug Cartel Run On Delivery App Model
Delhi Police
crime branch seized cocaine, MDMA and OG ganja worth over Rs 100 crore, and arrested five foreign nationals.
The syndicate was led by notorious Nigerian kingpin Callistus and had a highly organised structure, which utilised encrypted WhatsApp channels, forged documents and Indian-based foreign nationals for last-mile drug deliveries.
Special commissioner (crime) Devesh Shrivastava said that the syndicate had a presence in Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the UK. "They operated using a call centre model via WhatsApp and facilitated food delivery app-style deliveries using live locations through foot soldiers," Shrivastava added.
Police seized a sedan and Rs 2 lakh in cash, besides mobiles, passports, 2,700 grams of Colombian cocaine, 1,000 grams of MDMA and over 1 kg of OG ganja.
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The operation began with a raid at a courier facility in west Delhi's Moti Nagar, where 895 grams of MDMA, concealed among samples of Indian suits and ladies' shoes packaging, was intercepted. "The parcel's trail was followed through puzzles of fake addresses and different IDs and finally led to Cameroonian national Kameni Philipp, the cartel's India operations head.
We seized cocaine in its purest form, which was moulded into compressed bricks with waterproof packaging.
His interrogation blew open the cartel's core structure—revealing a tight-knit operation directly linked to Callistus, a Nigerian national controlling the global supply chain from West Africa," said Mangesh Kashyap, additional commissioner (crime).
The investigation by ACP Bhagwati Prasad's team led to the arrest of three Nigerian nationals identified as Godwin John, Kelechi Chikwe and Ibe Chinedu Austin, besides Koulaie Philippe, alias Tall Guy, from Cote d'Ivoire.
According to Kashyap, the syndicate's modus operandi included smuggling pure cocaine into India using female Indian nationals as carriers, exploiting their lower risk profile at international borders.
Upon entry into India, the consignment was received by Philipp, who passed them on to level-A distributors like Godwin John. John chemically adulterated the pure cocaine in a 1:4 ratio using neutral cutting agents, transforming 1 kg of pure cocaine into approximately 5 kg of street-grade cocaine.
The adulterated product was then distributed to level-B operatives such as Ibe, alias Victor, who released the stock on a weekly basis to level-C peddlers who conducted final deliveries to end users. Weekly payments were collected from these lower-level operatives and passed up the hierarchy.
"Handlers in Nigeria maintained centralised customer databases, ensuring that if a foot soldier was arrested, he could be quickly replaced without loss of customer data or disruption to operations," the additional CP said.
The investigation also unravelled a major money laundering operation. According to police, the collected drug proceeds in India were laundered via an informal currency exchange network. "Indians residing in Nigeria who wished to send money to India paid the equivalent amount in Naira to the syndicate. Their relatives in India received the corresponding sum in Indian Rupees, thus bypassing formal banking channels," said DCP Harsh Indora.
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