ED targets drug smuggling networks, raids 30 locations in four states

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday launched raids at 30 locations in Keralam, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana in connection with separate money laundering probes into several drug smuggling networks, officials said, terming at an action under Centre’s campaign against drugs.

The agency investigation under the prevention of money laundering act or PMLA stems from a total of eight cases registered by the local police in these states or the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) since 2022.

Sharing details of the individual cases, officials said that in Tamil Nadu, NCB had intercepted Sri Lankan citizens - N Ajanthan and k Madhusudan, who were living at a refugee camp in Ramanathapuram, on June 11, 2024, with 1.47 kg of methamphetamine.

ED’s investigations have revealed “an arrangement in which different persons performed distinct functions, procurement or financing of methamphetamine, its transportation, intended onward delivery to Sri Lanka, and settlement and remittance of consideration through hawala channels,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.

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In another case in Tamil Nadu, NCB arrested Bysul Rahman in Chennai on July 24, 2024 with 5.970 kg of Methamphetamine. The contraband was allegedly intended for onward movement to Sri Lanka and one accused - Syed Ibrahim - had travelled to Chennai is also named in the probe.

Separately, in December 2023, NCB caught a Sri Lankan national - S Udaya Kumar - with two kilograms of Methamphetamine in Chennai.

In Karnataka, ED’s probe is based on a July 2022 capture of one Mruthyunjaya alias Jayanna with one kilogram of hashish oil.

The agency’s action in Telangana is based on three first information reports (FIRs) filed against one Kalapathi Nithu Bai and her associates. The accused, a second ED officer said, “is a closely-related family group operating out of Lodha Basthi, Nanakramguda, and ran an organised syndicate that procured ganja at low prices from sources in Odisha, Araku and Dhoolpet (Hyderabad), stored it at their residences, repacked it into small sachets and sold it at a substantial mark-up across Nanakramguda and adjoining areas — an activity admittedly carried on for about six years”.

ED has traced her immovable properties acquired during the very period of the syndicate’s operation.

In Keralam, ED’s action is based on two separate cases - first against one Ayush Vinod, who was caught by was intercepted by Keralam Police with drugs; and another against an accused identified as Ligiesh, who had arrived from Muscat, and was intercepted with 949.26 grams of MDMA.

An official cited above said, “In alignment with the government’s policy priority to curb the drug menace - Nasha Mukt Bharat, we have accorded high priority to narcotics-related investigations, adopting a targeted financial disruption strategy to dismantle drug networks by tracing illicit proceeds and breaking their financial backbone”.

“In the last couple of years, we have seen in our PMLA probes that there is growing involvement in drug-linked financial networks, where drug trafficking proceeds are laundered through real estate, tradebased laundering, and crypto assets,” he added.