Delhi cocaine bust case: NCB makes fifth arrest, recovers Rs 4 crore cash

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) The NCB on Tuesday said it made a fresh arrest and found more than Rs 4 crore in cash following raids in an ongoing probe into a more than 80-kilogramme cocaine haul made last month, one of the biggest seizures of this party drug in Delhi.

The federal anti-narcotics agency conducted fresh searches at three locations in the busy market area of Chandni Chowk on Monday and recovered Rs 4,64,55,710 (Rs 4.64 crore) in cash and seized digital devices, documents and arrested one person.

This is the fifth arrest in the case.

The cash was handed over to the Income-Tax Department for investigation at its end, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said.

The names of some hawala operators have emerged in the transfer of money connected to the "trafficking" of cocaine by a group of people based abroad, the agency said.

On November 14, the NCB seized 82.53 kilogrammes of "high-grade" cocaine following searches in the national capital's Janakpuri and Nangloi areas.

Four people were arrested at that time.

The cocaine was seized after the agency worked on the "leads generated" from two earlier recoveries of the same drug from Delhi in March and August.

The initial recovery of cocaine (in the earlier months) was made from a courier shop in Delhi. The drugs were meant to be sent to Australia, the NCB had said.

The persons involved in the case are mainly hawala operators and anonymous to each other, according to the agency.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had praised the NCB for this operation and had said that the "massive" consignment was worth about Rs 900 crore and it was tracked down using a "bottom-to-top approach". PTI NES NES SZM SZM