An alleged “international” drug lord whom the police know only by name – Rana Tarandeep – has emerged as the latest person of interest for Delhi Police Special Cell in its probe into the Rs 13,000-crore drug trafficking case, in which cocaine and Thai marijuana were seized while being smuggled into Delhi by a Dubai-based cartel last October.
Sources in the police said the probe has found that WhatsApp texts exchanged between two accused in the case have shown that a man named Rana Tarandeep was hand-in-glove with Dubai-based drug cartel leader Virender Basoiya alias Veeru in smuggling the cocaine, and was directing it to be refined and processed in Gujarat. Officers said they are still investigating whether Tarandeep is the man’s real name.
On Monday, Delhi Police Special Cell had arrested one of the key suppliers of the drugs, Ritik Bajaj, from the UAE. Besides Bajaj, 18 people have been arrested in the case so far.
On October 1 last year, 562 kg of cocaine was seized in Mahipalpur in South Delhi, while on October 10, 208 kg of cocaine was seized from a shop in West Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar. The third seizure was made on October 13, when Special Cell sleuths and the Gujarat Police recovered 518 kg of cocaine worth Rs 5,000 crore during a raid at a firm called Aavkar Drugs in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar.
Tarandeep, an officer said, was in touch with chemists working at Aavkar Drugs, where cocaine supplied from South America via Dubai reached through multiple ports in South India. After being processed, the drugs were then moved out of Gujarat as medical consignments. “These were transported as medicine packages of Pharma Solutions Services via road to Delhi-NCR,” an officer said.
As per court records, one of the 19 people arrested in the case – Mayur Desale, a chemist working for Pharma Solutions Services – was in touch with Tarandeep and kept him updated on everything: from the colour of the cocaine mixture to the quantity being prepared.
“Though Mayur had joined the company just 30 days before his arrest, he had been in touch with Tarandeep since before. However, none of the accused have met Tarandeep, and we are still investigating whether it is his real name,” the officer said.
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Police said Tarandeep was also in contact with Amit Kumar Masoriya, another accused who allegedly worked as a middleman by striking deals between Pharma Solutions and Aavkar Drugs for processing the drugs.
As per court records, Masoriya conducted the first “transaction” with Tarandeep and then set up the contract between Aavkar Drugs and Pharma Solutions.
Further, the probe has found that multiple fake firms – at least three – were set up in the names of rickshaw drivers in South India and were later used to move the drugs. Court records revealed that over Rs 73 lakh was moved through hawala transactions.
According to officers investigating the case, Bajaj has been frequenting Delhi and Goa rave party circuits for the past decade. He studied in Delhi before going abroad to study in colleges in the UK and the US. He later became involved in the nightclub marketing business, dealing with clients across Dubai, the UK, Delhi, Phuket, and Goa. Police said Ritik was one of the key suppliers for Basoiya. “He was running a supply chain for Thai marijuana from Thailand and would regularly send consignments to Basoiya’s cartel in India,” ” a senior officer said.
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The officer added, “Last October, he sent 40 kg of drugs for distribution in multiple Indian cities – his biggest order placed by Basoiya.”
Ritik was brought back to India by a Special Cell team led by ACP Kailash Bhist under the direction of DCP Amit Kaushik.
A chargesheet running into over 10,000 pages has been filed by Delhi Police in the Patiala House Court, naming 19 people allegedly linked to the cartel.
While Tushar was arrested along with three others during the October 1 2024 raid, five others – including three of Aavkar Drugs’ listed directors. The two others arrested were Mayur and Masoriya, who allegedly facilitated meetings between representatives of the two firms.
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Multiple pharmaceutical companies based in South India and Gujarat – including five legitimate firms and three shell companies – were allegedly used to transport 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic Thai marijuana smuggled by the cartel into the Capital last October.