Step up war on drugs, money launderers

While addressing the Command Control Centre, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy appealed to the state police forces to act like soldiers at the borders and save the state from the scourge of drug trafficking and drug abuse. He, particularly, directed Cyber Security Bureau and Anti Narcotics Bureau to take stern action against the smugglers involved in cross border smuggling of drugs. He stated that though a person may be rich, if his children become drug addicts, he will be an unhappy person.

Amid the rising drug menace, the state registered 487 cases under the NDPS Act, 1985, with 981 arrests in the first quarter of 2024. In the natural or ‘organic’ drugs categories, significant quantities of hash oil were seized to the tune of 5.64 kg. Of this 2.91 kg was seized in March alone. Under the semi-synthetic drugs category, 22.3 kg of cocaine was seized in various cases alongside 251.3 grams of heroin. Higher order synthetic drugs like MDMA, LDS and Ecstasy and a case of Fentanyl have recently found popularity, particularly among the younger consumers, usually in the age groups of 16-30 years.

The DRI, the Anti Terrorist Squad of Gujarat Police, the NCB, with the Assistance of Coast Guard in joint operations have made significant seizures of Drugs valued over Rs 6,760 crore in the first two months of 2024, including Heroin, Hashish, MDMA, Mephedrone Methamphetamine, etc. In the largest operation, a joint force identified and intercepted a suspected fishing boat that was carrying 14 crew members – all Pakistan nationals – on Indian waters, 180 nautical miles off the coast of Porbandar, resulting in the seizure of 78 boxes of contraband suspected to be heroin weighing roughly 86 kg that is worth nearly Rs 602 crore in the international market. The boat and crew were brought to Porbandar for further investigation. In another operation, joint teams of Gujarat ATS and NCB (Operations) Delhi conducted simultaneous raids at Amreli and Gandhinagar, Sirohi and Jodhpur in Rajasthan on April 27, 2024, and seized illicit manufacturing units involved in the production of mephedrone. In the ongoing operations, 10 individuals have so far been detained and 22 kg of mephedrone powder and 124 litres of mephedrone in liquid form have been seized. In the third operation, the Gujarat ATS, Indian Coast Guard and NCB jointly seized 173 kg hashish worth Rs 60.5 crore on April 29, 2024.

According to DRI, the chief characteristic of the sea route or the cargo-container route is that it facilitates the smuggling of narcotics in bulk, wherein they are concealed well within the declared trade cargo, which is used as a cover. Among the many examples of sea-based seizures of cocaine and heroin in the previous financial year, on October 6, 2022, the agency’s Mumbai unit intercepted a shipping container at the busy Nhava Sheva port in Navi Mumbai. The container appeared to be normal – one among several carrying imported goods that had arrived from abroad. Its declared cargo was a consignment of green apples and pears from South Africa. But closer scrutiny revealed that inside the boxes containing apples and pears were fifty bricks of high-quality cocaine, each weighing around 1 kg. The value of this 50.23 kg cocaine – the largest seizure of the drug in recent years – was worth a whopping Rs 502 crore in the international market. Weeks earlier, on September 30, DRI officials intercepted another imported consignment at Nhava Sheva port – of popular Valencia oranges known for their sweetness and flavour, which had arrived in a shipping container from South Africa. A thorough examination of the consignment yielded 9 kg of high-purity cocaine and 198 kg of methamphetamine, whose combined worth was Rs. 1,476 crore.

Plant-based narcotics like cocaine and heroin are mostly smuggled into Maharashtra from abroad, while synthetic drugs are largely manufactured locally. Officials said DRI has intensified its intelligence-gathering mechanism to detect all possible routes of cocaine and heroin smuggling to ensure that no consignment escapes its scanner, whether brought in via air, land or sea.

In this scenario, it is necessary to find out the role of Chinese companies in committing financial frauds including money laundering. In October 2022, 15,000 Indians were cheated by Chinese companies involved in investment frauds through ‘Loan Apps’ in which an amount of Rs 900 crore was involved. The racket was busted by the Cyber Crime Bureau of Telangana police. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has alerted Registrar of Companies that multiple Chinese shell companies are operating in Hyderabad. It is in public domain that a number of Chinese companies do under invoicing of exports to evade the impact of customs duties and the difference is paid through hawala operators.

The Ministry of State Security (MSS), the Ministry of Public Security, (MPS) via its Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department, and numerous front organisations and state-owned enterprises are involved in cyber espionage, commercial, technological and industrial espionage, including computer intrusions in various countries, including India. Focus was believed to be on governments of South Asian and South-Eastern countries. Researchers discovered a cyber spy network in 2010, stolen documents, and classified material about Indian Missile Systems, confidential embassy documents about West Africa, Middle East and Russia. Various techniques, including honey traps, were adopted by Chinese Intelligence Agents by cultivating and brain washing domiciled Chinese, intellectuals, students studying in universities, and government staff posted in sensitive departments and organisations.

It is in public domain that the Chinese intelligence agencies and ISI have been pushing drugs into several countries, including India, to subvert the population and at the same time utilise the laundered funds in acquiring properties, control legitimate enterprises which in turn are used in committing economic crime.

The network of Chinese Criminal Organisations have also been used by the Chinese Intelligence Agencies to smuggle drugs like ‘Fentanyl’, a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid primarily used as an analgesic. It is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. The underworld calls it by several names like “Apace, China Girl, China Town, Dance Fever, Good Fellas, Great Bear, Jackpot, King Ivory, Tango, etc.” Fentanyl is snorted, sniffed, smoked, and orally taken as pills or tablets. Abuse of Fentanyl may cause relaxation, euphoria, pain relief, sedation, and confusion. Overdose may cause stupor, coma, and respiratory failure leading to death. Fentanyl abuse in US cities and towns has resulted in the death of thousands of Americans each month, while boosting organised crime across Europe.

Current and former DEA agents and high ranking law enforcement officials in the US, UK and Italy are concerned about a method of money laundering that they say is different and evading standard forms of surveillance and is making it difficult to pursue drug traffickers. Fentanyl is at least 20 times more profitable per kg than cocaine, leaving its traffickers with huge profits. Chinese organised criminal groups involved in money laundering operations communicate through encrypted Chinese Apps such as ‘WeChat’, have created an underground banking system that minimises the movement of funds across borders. This is similar to the encrypted messages which were used by the Kilakarai and Kayalapatnam based syndicates which were involved in smuggling gold and other contraband articles and hawala operations for years.

As of now, the Chinese have become the ‘biggest money launderers in the world’. The laundered money is used not only for paying for the drugs, its movement across borders, maintain and control its storage and marketing organisations but also to finance undercover activities of Chinese intelligence agencies, support particular political groups, or destabilize or change a government, support terrorist outfits fighting internecine wars with government of the day. The law enforcement agencies, including the DRI, NCB, Anti Narcotics Bureau of the State Governments and the Customs Authorities should be alert to the menace of the new drug Fentanyl, which apart from ruining the health of the youth generates enormous profits that may be used for financing subversive activities. (Writer is Former DG, NCB, DG, DRI, and Member, CBIC)