Mumbai: Five arrested for ‘drug in parcel’ crime

The Bangur Nagar Link Road police in Goregaon have arrested five men who were allegedly involved in duping Rs1 crore from multiple people across the country.

Posed as cops, extorted money from victims by telling they have drugs in parcel

Their modus operandi was to disguise themselves as cops and tell victims that their parcels contained drugs and extort money.

The fraudsters used to call people and informed them that their parcels contain narcotic drugs and extort money for not taking the case further. The cyber cell of the police station received multiple complaints about crimes with similar modus.

Sanjay Mandal and Animesh Baidya, two of the five accused were held in Kolkata. Through them, police arrested Mahindra Rokde and Mukesh Dive in Titwala near Mumbai.

Mastermind Srinivas held from Visakhapatnam

The fifth accused was the one who all the other four ‘reported to’, said the police, adding that they provided certain details about the former. The fifth accused, Srinivas Dadi, was apprehended from Visakhapatnam in Hyderabad.

The police are suspecting that there may be a possibility of a China connection in the case. “We are further probing the case to understand the higher links in the case. It could be possible that the duped money was sent to a Chinese citizen through online transactions and Dadi, the primary accused, was in touch with the latter,” said a police official.