Drug syndicate: ED pegs proceeds of crime at ₹44 cr

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge-sheet in a special PMLA court, accusing 18 individual/ firms, including Aliasgar Shirazi, in connection with an alleged drug syndicate.

The syndicate is accused of illegally shipping opioids from India to the US, UK, and Australia and channelling the proceeds back to India. The ED chargesheet, filed under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is against Aliasgar Shirazi and 13 individuals, including Krunal Oza who is associated with a hospitality firm, and four private firms.

According to the agency source, the ED probe has estimated that the case’s proceeds of crime is to be around ₹44 crore. Shirazi was taken into custody on January 5 by the ED in connection with its money laundering probe related to the seizure of a synthetic psychotropic narcotic, Ketamine, worth around ₹7.87 crore in March last year by the Mumbai police. He is currently in judicial custody.

The ED initiated its probe based on a case registered by the Jogeshwari police station under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 against Shirazi and others.

The agency had recently provisionally attached immovable and movable assets worth ₹5.37 crore belonging to Shirazi and others, including even immovable properties, in the form of flats, shops, and land plots, worth around ₹5 crore belonging to Shirazi and a few others, and movable properties worth ₹36.81 lakh, in the form of fixed deposits and deposits in the bank accounts of two persons, and M/s Hustlers Hospitality Private Limited.

ED’S search operations yielded seizures totaling ₹2.9 crore, including bank accounts, fixed deposits, and valuables. The investigation uncovered a drug syndicate allegedly involving telecommunication, logistics, consultancy, and dummy pharma companies. Opioids were shipped illegally from India to foreign countries, with proceeds routed back using various channels. Call centers in India allegedly received orders from the US and the UK. Drugs were procured from dummy pharma firms and transported abroad via logistics companies.

A network of logistics and consultancy firms allegedly laundered proceeds, with Us-based companies operating payment gateways to reroute funds from illegal drug sales in the US to India.