The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said it arrested three persons, including two women, for allegedly being part of a well-organised drug trafficking ring.
Those allegedly involved in the racket used to send high-quality cannabis by courier for which orders were placed through the dark web. The narcotics substance was being allegedly smuggled into India from the United States and Canada.
“Following a reliable input that a special ‘green kind of cannabis’ was being smuggled into India from California in the US and Canada by courier, the NCB’s Kolkata Zonal unit was keeping surveillance on various courier services in Kolkata for quite some time and finally seized 42 overseas parcels at FPO Kolkata in a three-day operation —from July 27 to 30. The parcels were falsely declared as containing cosmetics and toys, among other items. Three persons were arrested,” an officer said.
According to NCB officials, the seized cannabis of approximately 20 kg each in all 42 parcels is “costlier strain” known as the World’s Strongest Marijuana Strain. Those arrested have been identified as Shraddha Surana (25), Tareena Bhatnagar (26) and Karan Kumar Gupta (30).
Sources said the narcotics substance was ordered through the dark web and used to arrive by courier to bypass the DLEO (Drug Law Enforcement Officer) surveillance.
“Shraddha was running this whole trafficking business under the fake name Simran Singh. She was also found to be holding a fake Aadhaar card in the name of Simran Singh,” the officer said.
Using several dark web channels, the orders were placed with the accused who forwarded them to their overseas contacts for delivery, claimed officials.
According to senior NCB officials, Tareena had ordered three parcels from Telegram (Televend), a dark web platform she created in her name and that of her two friends.
Karan used to allegedly deliver these parcels to different places in Kolkata as per the directions of Shraddha and get paid for the deliveries.
