Anti-Narcotics Body Busts International Drug Racket Operating On Darknet

Digital forensics show that the syndicate has shipped at least one lakh orders to the US, UK, Europe and various other countries underneath the label of herbal supplements, an official said. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) today claimed to possess busted an international drug trafficking syndicate with the arrest of eight people and seizure of 22 lakh psychotropic tablets and at least 245 kgs of similar drugs which were being allegedly peddled within the darknet.

The central anti-narcotics agency said the illegal trade was found after multiple raids were carried out by officials of the Delhi zonal unit in the National Capital Region, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh over a period of two month.

NCB deputy director (operations) KPS Malhotra said, “22 lakh pyschotropic drugs like Tramadol, 70,000 codeine-based cough syrups and 245 kgs of other sounding drugs have now been seized till now. A total of eight people have now been arrested “.

The officer, who also heads the NCB’s Delhi unit as its zonal director, said the accused got the orders “through the darknet , created secret websites and delivered the narcotics items through dedicated shippers to generate anonymity involving the receiver of the order and the logistics people “.

Darknet is an invisible network within the web that may only be accessed with specific software and tools, such as the World Market Onion router.

Digital forensics show that the syndicate has shipped at least one lakh orders to the US, UK, Europe and various other countries under the label of herbal supplements, he said.

The agency questioned the arrested accused and found that a good chunk of the psychotropic drugs had been diverted from a Haridwar-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company, Mr Malhotra said.

The agency also issued a statement to express that the syndicate was spread across Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and has links abroad like in the US, UK, Canada and the Philippines.

The NCB claimed that at least nine websites operating on the darknet , that were being utilized in by this syndicate, had their IP addresses located outside India.