NIA arrests key accused in Attari border drug haul case

New Delhi: In a major breakthrough in the 2022 Attari border heroin seizure case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday said that it has arrested a key absconding accused, Amritpal Singh, who is also the handler of the cash and launderer of drug proceeds through banking and hawala channels.

An NIA spokesperson here said that Singh was arrested by the NIA on Friday. With his arrest, the NIA has arrested three people in the case.

The case pertains to recovery and seizure of a total of 102.784 kgs of heroin, valued at about Rs 700 crore. The seizures were made in two instalments, on April 24 and 26 last year, by the Indian Customs when the drugs arrived in the country from Afghanistan via integrated checkpost (ICP) Attari, Amritsar. The drugs had been concealed in a consignment of licorice roots (Mulethi).

The official said that Singh was detained by Immigration officers on December 12 while trying to flee to Dubai from the Amritsar International Airport.

The Immigration officers detained him on the basis of the orders passed by the competent authority on December 7, 2023, in view of the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against by him by the NIA.

The official said that Singh’s role in the conspiracy relating to the international drug nexus came to light following the examination of associates of the various persons accused in the case, and also from several incriminating transactions done by Singh in the bank accounts of the other accused.

As per NIA probe, Singh has been found involved in the larger conspiracy hatched by a global drug cartel.

“As part of the drug network, he was the conduit for circulation of drug money to various distributors in India as well as the main accused settled abroad. Singh used his travel agency and money transfer business to transfer the proceeds of drugs,” the official said citing the agency’s probe so far.

Based on the disclosures of the associates of the accused, the NIA had, on October 22 this year, conducted searches at Singh’s residential and official premises, leading to the recovery of cash amounting to Rs 1.34 crore as proceeds of narcotics.

It was also found that Singh at the behest of Dubai-based absconding accused Shahid Ahmed aka Qazi Abdul Wadood, transferred huge amounts generated as proceeds of drugs into his (Shahid’s) bank accounts and also to the latter’s India-based associate Razi Haider Zaidi and some others.

The official said that on November 8, 2023, a day after the Competent Authority issued the freeze order, the NIA froze Singh’s seized cash amount as ‘illegally acquired property’ under the sections of the NDPS Act.

The official said that investigations by the NIA, after it took over the case on the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), have so far revealed that the drug consignment in question was sent to India by Afghanistan-based co-accused Nazir Ahmed Qani, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif, on the directions of Shahid Ahmed.

The same was supposed to be delivered to accused Razi Haider Zaidi in India, for distribution in various parts of the country for monetary gains, the official said.

NIA had, on December 16 last year, filed a charge sheet against four accused, Shahid Ahmed aka Qazi Abdul Wadood, Nazir Ahmed Qani, Razi Haider Zaidi and Vipin Mittal, in the case.

While Mittal and Zaidi, both residents of Delhi, were arrested in August 2022, Shahid and Nazir, who are based out of India, have been declared absconding in the case.