Drugs Supply Racket Busted In Noida, 5 Arrested

The Noida Police on Saturday arrested five people, including a university student, and seized drugs worth around Rs 15 lakh from them as it busted a racket engaged in narcotics supply at educational institutes in Delhi-NCR, officials said.

Police said the suspects would send the contraband kept inside forged packets of popular e-commerce companies and used services of bike taxis for instant delivery to clients.

In November 2023, the police had busted a gang and arrested nine people, including four university students, on charges of involvement in drugs supply in the region using the same modus operandi. Police had then seized drugs worth Rs 30 lakh from them.

On Saturday, DCP (Noida) Harish Chander said developing the chain of network identified in the previous case, now five more people have been arrested by a team of the Sector 126 police station led by Additional DCP Manish Mishra and ACP Rajneesh Verma.

“Police have also seized drugs, including hashish, marijuana and OG in large quantity from them. An electric weighing scale has also been seized,” DCP Chander told reporters.

“The modus operandi was similar as last time. They would then have drugs delivered to their clients in packets of e-commerce companies using bike taxis,” the officer said.

Their main targets were students of educational institutes and those living there and in PGs around them. The drugs supplied by the gang were finer and sophisticated in nature, DCP Chander said.

“We have recovered chats and gathered electronic evidence on the basis of which the arrests have been made,” he added.

The suspects held have been identified as Sagar Bhatt, Nishant, Sachin Kumar, Harsh Jha (all residents of Noida) and Chetan Adalka, the police said.

One of the accused is a hotel management student at a private university in Noida, another worked as a bike taxi operator who was roped in for delivering consignments, police said.

Around 12.70 kg marijuana, 250 gm of hashish, 5 gm of foreign-made OG were seized from the accused, who have been booked under the stringent sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the police added.