Tibetan held in drug bust

NCB recovered Rs 4 crore worth of hash. Bureau is probing to find out if the money made from the drug trafficking was diverted to fund Tibetan freedom movement
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has, for the first time, busted a well-oiled statewide drug syndicate which uses Tibetans as part of its network.

Officials raided two shops at the Tibetan market in Nashik and recovered 66 kg of pure Kashmiri hashish valued at close to Rs 4 crore.

Taming Sinon alias Chhotubhai (44), a Tibetan national, and Ladakh resident Tsering Tobaahee alias Jilebibhai (45) were arrested.

"Tibetans are usually not involved in drug trafficking. This is the first such arrest," said Yashodhan Wanage, NCB's zonal director (West).

Sleuths are interrogating the duo to ascertain if they were diverting money earned from drug trafficking to the Tibetan freedom movement.

Tip-off

Despite inputs that drug syndicates had moved out of the city, the bureau received a tip-off that hashish was being brought from Kashmir for drug peddlers in Mumbai and was being stocked at the Tibetan market in Nashik, opposite the police commissionerate.

The market consists of stalls allotted by the Nashik Municipal Corporation to Tibetan shopkeepers who sell woollens and wooden artefacts in the Shalimar locality of the city.

"As per their plan, drug peddlers from Mumbai and Thane were to approach the duo, use a code word and then buy the drugs from them," said an NCB official. The bureau is now trying to ascertain whether these stalls were being used as fronts by the drug syndicate.

Sustained interrogation of the duo revealed that the Kashmiri trafficker behind the consignment had paid them close to Rs 5 lakh each.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the trafficker is a history sheeter and is wanted in several other cases.