Bengaluru,   In a major breakthrough, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested a former Bahrain police officer turned international drug cartel kingpin, a native of Kerala in Bengaluru, sources said on Tuesday. The NCB has launched a hunt for other drug peddlers in the case.

 

The accused former police officer has been nabbed in connection with the case of detection of 3.5 kilograms of Hashish oil worth Rs 1 crore at the Kochi airport on September 12 in which one person had been held. Since then the kingpin was eluding investigating officers.

The accused had packed the drug consignments into boxes as a 'prasad' (a food or dish offering to a deity, which is later shared with worshippers) and also as Ayurveda medicines.

Upon investigation of the arrested person in the case of detection of 3.5 kilograms of Hashish oil, the role of a 52-year kingpin who worked as a police officer in Bahrain has emerged. The NCB also got to know about the international drug peddling network run by the former police officer.

After the arrest of his associate, the kingpin had escaped to Bengaluru. The accused smuggled Hashish oil to the Gulf on cargo planes. He procured drugs from Manali in Himachal Pradesh and managed to transport them to Kochi in Kerala from Bengaluru, sources said.

The accused has been running a drug peddling mafia for three years. He served as a police officer in Bahrain for 20 years and after settling down in Kerala in 2014 he started the drug racket. He supplied Hashish oil packed as 'prasad boxes' and 'Ayurveda medicines' to Bahrain, according to sources.

The Kerala NCB sleuths came to know about the drug cartel run by the main accused and managed to intercept courier consignment to Bahrain in Kerala and arrested a person who spilled the beans during the investigation.

Though NCB tried to nab the kingpin, he managed to give a slip. Finally, he was caught on September 29 while returning from Manali by train.

The sleuths have also recovered 11.6 kilograms of drugs in Kerala's Ernakulam and arrested another accomplice, sources said. Investigations are ongoing and the NCB has not revealed the name so far.