High-profile drug consumers use house help to evade police

Samuel Miranda allegedly got the contraband for Sushant Singh Rajput and Rhea Chakraborty according to an NCB officer

There is a new strategy of supplying drugs to B-town parties and high-profile gatherings these days, according to a Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) official. The official said the Bollywood bigwigs and white collar people who consume these drugs never come into the light during the purchase, as they involve their driver, housemaid, PR executive or in some cases another high-profile personality to evade the police. The official also revealed that high quality charas is being exported from Himachal Pradesh and for use in Bollywood parties as well as other elite gatherings, as a current trend.

The officials investigating the drug chain among high-profile people including Bollywood celebrities have found that there are variety of drugs being supplied. Currently cocaine and organic bud are most famously used in such parties and imported from the USA, Canada and Amsterdam. NCB officials also found that there is a new trend in such big parties where people are using a pure quality of charas. "Infact, we have seized pure quality charas from one of the peddlers. It was exported from Himachal Pradesh and is also famous among these high-profile people as Manali cream," a senior officer of NCB told mid-day.

Some of the accused drug peddlers such as Karamjeet Singh alias KJ, Dwayne Fernandes and Ankush Arenja were foot soldiers for drug dealers, said an NCB official

"There are two qualities of charas, one is local, and mostly used by addicts and lower class people. This quality was never used in high-profile parties. Since the pure quality of charas is being brought from Himachal there is a heavy demand for it," the officer added.

Also Read: Gabriella Demetriades' brother was in touch with peddlers supplying drugs for B-Town parties: NCB official

Marijuana, LSD and MD are other drugs famous among the party goers, and the official said the high-profile party-goers prefer taking these synthetic drugs only if they are imported. The local MD drug is more famous among college going students and youngsters. "There are several manufacturers of MD across India. They have licenses for pharmaceutical companies but they do this business by using these licences. These drugs are mostly manufactured late in the night and supplied accordingly," another officer privy to the drug syndicate investigation said.

Sandeep Gupta, Kaizan, Sanket Patel and Aftab Fateh Ansari

The NCB officials also found that there is a high demand of local weed as well in B-Grade parties, in which small-time celebrities and models are also involved in the supply chain. "The local weed is mostly exported from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Manipur," the officer added.

According to NCB officials, generally the drugs are exported from the sea and air by the international cartel. The domestic chain of drug supply works with the help of courier services, and these are being paid heavy amounts to keep their mouth shut. Once the drug is exported to Mumbai from abroad or brought from the other states of India, there is a long chain which provides the drugs to the consumer who are mainly high-profile people, celebrities. The chain of high-profile people works through a facilitator who contacts the consumers and they never come into light. "The facilitator is into the white collar business and knows which celebrity or high-profile person needs what kind of drugs. Once he is informed by the suppliers about the availability of drugs he then contacts them," the officer added.

"Suppliers work as foot soldiers for the drug dealers. The dealers are always being contacted by suppliers based on the demands they are getting. The facilitator and the drug dealers never come in contact, and the suppliers and drug dealers never come to know who are the actual consumers. Their business is only to make available the drugs based on demand from the facilitator," said another officer.

According to NCB officials, the drug peddlers arrested in the Sushant Singh Rajput case are mainly foot soldiers of main drug dealers. "Every foot soldier has his/her own network within the city or their respective areas and the contacts of almost dozens of facilitators. Like in the case of Sushant Singh Rajput, the accused drug peddlers such as Anuj Keshwani, Karamjeet Singh alias KJ, Dwayne Fernandes, Ankush Arenja and Chris Costa were working as foot soldiers for drug dealers and they were into the business of narcotics substances," the officer added.

The facilitators also never meet the suppliers, they contact them by using an app based call, mostly WhatsApp calls. The official said the suppliers deliver the drugs as per their pre-discussed location. The one sent by the facilitator to get the delivery, is most of the time not even aware of the drugs. "After receiving the delivery, the facilitator then contacts the consumer. In most of the cases the high-profile people and celebrities are found using their house help or their employees to get the contraband without even telling them what is inside. In the case of Rajput, Deepesh Sawant and Samuel Miranda got the contraband for him and Rhea Chakraborty, but in this case they were aware of drug dealing, the electronic evidences have revealed." the officer added further.

The officer said, "Infact there was a chat of Sushant's business manager Shuruti Modi talking about a narcotics substance and similar WhatsApps chats were also found where actor Deepika Padukone's manager Karishma Prakash was talking about drugs and allegedly making them available to the actress."

Keep scrolling to read more news

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news