MUMBAI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday arrested a 35-year-old woman from south Mumbai with 1.8kg of hashish worth Rs 1 crore smuggled from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
This the third seizure of contraband smuggled into Mumbai from POK via Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Gujarat. NCB officials claimed that the arrest is based on information given by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar during his interrogation. Kaskar also disclosed the smuggling route of contraband by Dawood, officials claimed.
“The whole lot of hashish is smuggled into India via Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab from their lands in Rajasthan where there is huge consumption in Ajmer and Pushkar where foreigners visit. The rest is offloaded at Gujarat and Mumbai,” said an official.
NCB officials on Sunday laid a trap and arrested Hussain Bi, a resident of Nagpada who was on her way to deliver the contraband, taking her 5-year-old child as a shield from getting caught. Officials said Hussain Bi’s parents too have drug smuggling cases against them. While her son was handed over to her guardian, Hussain Bi was produced was sent to NCB custody.
The NCB probe pertains to two operations, in which the first NCB team raided places in Dadar, Tardeo and Parel and arrested five people. In the second, they arrested Kaskar’s confidant and an accomplice and recovered 27kg of hashish.
