Hindustan Times (Noida)

Three more arrested for selling narcotics on the dark web: NCB

- Karn Pratap Singh karn.singh@hindustant­imes.com ■

NEW DELHI: Weeks after a hotel management graduate was arrested for selling psychotrop­ic drugs worldwide through the dark net, three more persons were arrested from different parts of the country in connection with the case.

The narcotics control bureau (NCB) on Wednesday said among the arrested suspects was a director of a pharmaceut­ical company from Maharashtr­a’s Nagpur. A total of 91,000 tablets of different psychotrop­ic drugs and over 135 kilograms of loose tablets have been seized, the bureau said in a press statement.

Hotel management graduate 21-year-old Dipu Singh was arrested from Lucknow on January

31. The three latest arrested persons were identified as Sachin Makade (33), Tejas Patel (28) and Barun Chauhan (33). They would allegedly arrange the shipment of contraband from Singapore to the USA and the UK as per orders from Dipu.

Makade is the director of a pharmaceut­ical company dealing in sale and supply of drugs related to treat sexual ailments. Chauhan is a qualified MBA and manages the with Makade since 2015. Patel associated himself with the two a year ago, the officials said.

NCB’S deputy director general Rajesh Nandan Srivastava said that Dipu Singh supplied psychotrop­ic drugs to customers from various countries after receiving orders on dark net websites.

The dark net is that part of the internet that can be accessed with the help of certain software. Website and content on the dark net cannot be accessed through regular browser or indexed by popular search engine. Transactio­ns made over the dark net, usually through cryptocurr­encies like Bitcoin, are extremely difficult to detect.

“Dipu Singh was listed as a vendor on two Darknet markets. His interrogat­ion revealed his associatio­n with Patel and the other two persons,” said Srivastava.

On February 11, Patel was arrested along with Makade and Chauhan from Nagpur. Patel used to receive orders of psychotrop­ic drugs for the USA and UK from Singh via Whatsapp, said KPS Malhotra, NCB’S zonal director.

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