The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday launched raids at 30 locations in Keralam, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana in connection with separate money laundering probes into several drug smuggling networks, officials said, terming at an action under Centre’s campaign against drugs.
Sharing details of the individual cases, officials said that in Tamil Nadu, NCB had intercepted Sri Lankan citizens – N Ajanthan and k Madhusudan, who were living at a refugee camp in Ramanathapuram, on June 11, 2024, with 1.47 kg of methamphetamine.
The agency’s action in Telangana is based on three first information reports (FIRs) filed against one Kalapathi Nithu Bai and her associates.
ED’s investigations have revealed “an arrangement in which different persons performed distinct functions, procurement or financing of methamphetamine, its transportation, intended onward delivery to Sri Lanka, and settlement and remittance of consideration through hawala channels,” said an officer, who asked not to be named. The accused, a second ED officer said, “is a closely-related family group operating out of Lodha Basthi, Nanakramguda, and ran an organised syndicate that procured ganja at low prices from sources in Odisha, Araku and Dhoolpet (Hyderabad), stored it at their residences, repacked it into small sachets and sold it at a substantial mark-up across Nanakramguda and adjoining areas — an activity admittedly carried on for about six years”. An official cited above said, “In alignment with the government’s policy priority to curb the drug menace – Nasha Mukt Bharat, we have accorded high priority to narcotics-related investigations, adopting a targeted financial disruption strategy to dismantle drug networks by tracing illicit proceeds and breaking their financial backbone”.
