Senegal national, kingpin of synthetic drug cartel, arrested in Chennai

CHENNAI: A Senegal national, believed to be the kingpin of a multi-state synthetic drug cartel operating across India, was arrested by the Tiruvallur district police on Friday.

A special team arrested him in Delhi with the assistance of Delhi police following a week-long investigation that exposed an extensive network trafficking methamphetamine and other narcotics across several states.The accused, W Bende, 43, was apprehended after nearly 10 days of surveillance in Delhi and Noida. Police seized multiple mobile phones containing extensive data related to drug supply operations in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and several North-Eastern states.Investigations revealed that Bende had sourced the contraband from border regions of the North-Eastern states and supplied it to major metropolitan centres such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. The network used multiple SIM cards, fake identities, and front businesses like textile shops to conceal illicit financial transactions.

The latest arrest follows a series of earlier operations by Tiruvallur police, who already detained several Indian and foreign nationals linked to the same cartel.

On Oct 14, police, acting on confidential information, arrested S Muneer, 28, and B Javeed, 38, and seized 55 grams of methamphetamine from them. Investigations showed that one of the accused had regularly travelled to Mumbai to procure drugs and later supplied them in Bengaluru and Chennai.Subsequently, on Oct 23, police arrested D Sibiraj, 22, son of Dhanasekar, who ran a dance studio in Chennai. Officers seized 54 grams of methamphetamine from him.

He was found to be an Instagram influencer.To pursue the cartel’s inter-state links, a special team was formed. Their investigation uncovered that the cartel’s members operated through internet-based applications, including WhatsApp, for drug orders and payments. Customers transferred money to bank accounts in West Bengal, Nagaland and Mizoram, after which GPS coordinates were shared for the pickup of hidden drug consignments in Chennai and Bengaluru.

Police identified several individuals in Tamil Nadu who transferred money to these accounts and arrested ten of them.