Hyderabad: Telangana anti-narcotics wing—EAGLE on Tuesday said it has busted a major hawala racket linked to drugs and arrested 20 people from different parts of the country.
During an investigation of a Nigerian national, who was caught while attempting to sell cocaine and ecstasy pills to his Hyderabad-based consumers in June, the well-organised hawala network was unearthed, the Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement (EAGLE) said in a release.
A total of 24 special EAGLE teams carried out raids and arrested 20 drug money launderers and accomplices across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Goa, and Delhi, it said, and added that Rs 3 crore was seized during these raids.
“Most suppliers work out of Parra, Calangute, Siolim and Anjuna. The drugs reach the elite, educated youth in Hyderabad. One such arrest was of DJ Swadeep alias DJ Swed, along with Balakrishna, who sourced drugs from Vansh Thakkar, a Pune-based DJ, in May,” Shandilya said.
Thakkar, recently charged by Raidurg police and TGNAB for selling cocaine to a doctor, goes by the stage name Beyondvoid. He performs mainly in Goa, Thane, and Bengaluru and has done international gigs. He also holds boot camps in Goa and has reportedly supplied drugs to wealthy clients for years by sourcing them from Nigerians. He operates through three Instagram accounts.
Shandiliya said, “Our teams arrested four Nigerians in mid-May, including Maxwell in June. Their operations involved drugs worth crores and commissions in lakhs. They sent earnings back to their families in Nigeria through money laundering.” He explained that two teams left for Goa three days ago and monitored Sangeetha Mobile Shop in Mapusa and Highland Park apartments round the clock.
“We saw collection agents gathering cash. On June 1, the laundering kingpin collected the money. We waited for the right moment and raided on June 4, recovering Rs 50 lakh. Had we delayed by an hour, the money would’ve reached foreign drug cartels. We even saw foreigners handing over cash to agents.”
