- Narcotics Control Bureau apprehended film producer Jaffer Sadiq for smuggling drugs worth over Rs 2,000 crore.
- Sadiq, linked to the Tamil film industry and a former DMK member, is accused of running a drug trafficking network to Australia and New Zealand.
- Authorities seized large quantities of methamphetamine and are investigating further with the help of the FBI.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has caught a movie producer named Jaffer Sadiq on suspicion of smuggling drugs worth over Rs 2,000 crore out of India.
Sadiq used to work with a political party called DMK and had connections in the Tamil film industry. The NCB had been trying to catch him since February 15.
NCB says Jaffer Sadiq was the main person behind a drug smuggling gang that operated between India, Australia, and New Zealand.
They claim he smuggled drugs worth Rs 2,000 crore to these countries.
Gyaneshwar Singh, a big shot in the NCB, said Jaffer Sadiq sent around 3,500 kg of something called pseudoephedrine to Australia in 45 packages.
They hid this stuff in coconuts and dry fruits. Pseudoephedrine is a type of drug that’s controlled in India because it’s used to make methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth.
According to Gyaneshwar Singh, Jaffer Sadiq managed to escape from the police by traveling through different cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and finally reaching Jaipur.
They say Sadiq made a lot of money from drug smuggling and used it to buy land and make movies, like his latest one called “Mangai.” He even bought a hotel with the drug money, Singh added.
Jaffer Sadiq has produced four movies, and one of them is supposed to come out later this month.
His arrest comes after the police found methamphetamine worth Rs 180 crore from two people on a train in Madurai and from a garbage dump in Chennai. They think these drugs were meant to be smuggled to Sri Lanka.
On February 29, the police seized 36 kg of methamphetamine from a couple traveling on a train and an extra 6 kg from a dump yard in Chennai.
The couple was caught with the drugs. Methamphetamine is a really addictive drug with dangerous effects, similar to cocaine, as said by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
After the drug bust, K Annamalai, who is a big leader in the BJP, blamed the ruling party DMK, saying Tamil Nadu has become the drug capital of India.
“An international drug dealer and a DMK member named Jaffar Sadiq is on the run. The NCB is searching the places of DMK members.
Drugs worth Rs 1,200 crore were caught off the coast of Gujarat, and today 30 kgs of methamphetamine were caught in Madurai by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence,” he said in a post online.
The NCB has also caught three people connected to this drug gang in Delhi. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is helping the Indian agency with the investigation into the drug network.