One of the Largest Consignment Ever of Pure/Fine Quality Cocaine Seized by Delhi Police

A team of officers of Crime Branch led by ACP KPS Malhotra and consisting of Insp. Arvind Kumar, SIs Gurmeet, Dataram, Vijay, Neeraj, Sunil, ASI Rakesh Ahluwalia, HCs Ramesh, Hanuman, Satender, Kanwar Pal Cts Surender, Virender, Rahul, Atul, Dayaram, Sunil, Ranjeet and Ajay under the supervision of DCP Bhisham Singh and overall supervision of Addl.CP Ashok Chand have busted an international drug trafficking module indulged in supply of cocaine into Delhi from Brazil. One Peruvian national Armando Lopes Reyes (64 yrs) s/o Marcelino Lope Mendoza r/o Firon Casma, Rima, Lima, Peru has been arrested and 1295 gram of high quality cocaine recovered from his possession. The value of the recovered contraband is Rs. 6.5 crore approx. in the International market. The consignment is one of the biggest seizures of "Pure Cocaine" in the history of Delhi Police. The highly lucrative route of Brazil-Sao Paulo-Delhi has been identified which was being used by the drug traffickers.

      On 13.4.15, specific information was received at Inter-State Cell, Crime Branch that one Peruvian National namely Armando Lopes Reyes, who have visited India earlier also, would be coming to T3 terminal Delhi IGI Airport from Brazil. A trap was laid at T3 Terminal IGI Airport and at the instance of the informer, the accused was apprehended. The team tried to communicate with him but the person feigned ignorance of English. Despite efforts of the team to communicate with him, he continued to be uncooperative. He was apprehended and brought to the office of ISC at Chanakyapuri, and one Spanish interpreter was arranged.

            After completing the legal procedures and formalities, search of his two trolley bags was conducted and apparently it was found to be having his personal clothing. However, the information was very reliable and hundred percent sure that he was carrying major haul of drugs. On minute checking, it was noticed that all the screws used for attaching the iron/plastic base having wheels fitting with storage part appeared to be brand new. Thereafter, the screws were dismantled and the cavities in the trolley pipes, handles, etc were got opened. The pipes and plastic parts of the trolley base were found to contain multiple small packets. All the concealed packets of both the bags were carefully taken out and small packets having semi solid white material packed in 4 layers of plastic, silver foil, plastic rapper and then black PVC plastic tape to save the consignment from X-Ray detection and other scanners were found. The recovered material was tested and was found to be of the highest purity of cocaine. The total weight of the recovered material came to 1295 gram. After completing the seizure formalities, a case under appropriate sections of NDPS act was registered and investigations were taken up.

            The seized cocaine is of pure/fine quality while the normally consumed “Crack” is a lower purity form of free-base cocaine that is usually produced by neutralization of cocaine hydrochloride with a solution of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO₃) and water, producing a very hard/brittle, off-white-to-brown coloured, amorphous material that contains sodium carbonate, entrapped water, and other by-products as the main impurities.

            The "freebase" and "crack" forms of cocaine are usually administered by vaporization of the powdered substance into smoke, which is then inhaled.

 On interrogation through the interpreter, the accused disclosed that the bags had been given to him by one Juan in Sao Paulo, Brazil to handover these to one Ali in Delhi. He was given 1000 US Dollars by one Juan and another 500 US Dollars was promised on his return back to Sao Paulo.

His passport was checked and it was found that he had earlier traveled to India thrice in the months of May, July and October last year. Interrogation of the accused is being done to unearth the whole racket of drugs syndicate being operated from South America and also having its tentacles in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Efforts are being made to track his previous movement and verify his antecedents. Efforts are also being made to trace the receiver of the cocaine consignment. It seems that the accused is a carrier and member of a large South American drug syndicate. Efforts are being made to identify his associates in India and abroad. Intelligence agencies and Narcotics Control Bureau have been informed to conduct joint interrogation of the accused.