Tamil Nadu: Chennai: The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu could potentially face trouble in an election year, with the Narcotics Control Bureau on Saturday arresting Jaffer Sadiq, the kingpin of an international drug cartel that was busted recently. Sadiq was on the run and traced from his hideout in Delhi.
A film producer, Sadiq alias Jaffer Sadiq Abdul Rehman, was until recently the office-bearer of the DMK's NRI wing west Chennai district. He was expelled from the party soon after the NCB had last month indicated his involvement in the drug trade.
NCB Deputy Director General (operations) Gyaneshwar Singh told journalists in Delhi, that Sadiq’s linkages with the Tamil and Hindi film industry, some “high-profile” people and also a few of the instances of “political funding” were being probed by the agency.
The mention about the "political funding" has raised eyebrows considering that the accused was seen in the company of several DMK leaders including Chief Minister M K Stalin and his son Udhayanidhi Stalin, though those meetings were in his capacity as film producer. Indications are that the agency could soon summon those it considered close to Sadiq.
During his visit to Chennai last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said he was extremely concerned about the information he was receiving about the drug cartel. He warned that action would follow on this front as drugs destroyed the future generations.
Singh has described Sadiq as the “mastermind and kingpin” of the international trafficking network, which illegally exported pseudoephedrine from India to Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.
“The NCB believes in doing an unbiased and lawful investigation. A criminal has no caste, religion or political party. Whosoever violates the NDPS law is an offender and we will investigate any such entity,” the NCB officer said . The agency would “intensely investigate” the drug money trail in the case.
Last month, the NCB had said it arrested three people, all hailing from Tamil Nadu, and seized 50 kg of narcotics-making chemical pseudoephedrine during a raid at a godown of Sadiq’s company named Aventa in Delhi’s Basai Darapur area.
The searches by the NCB and Delhi Police special were conducted on a tip-off they received in the end of 2023 from the Australian and New Zealand authorities about “large quantities” of pseudoephedrine concealed in desiccated coconut powder and mix food powder being smuggled into their countries from India.
It received additional input from the US DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), which indicated that the source of these consignments was Delhi.
NCB officials said Sadiq allegedly got a commission worth Rs 1 lakh per kg from the smuggling of narcotics.
The agency claimed that the three arrested persons and Sadiq confessed that a total of 45 pseudoephedrine consignments were sent by them over the last 3 years, containing about 3,500 kgs of pseudoephedrine valued at over Rs 2,000 crore in the international market.
BJP Slams DMK Over Closeness With Accused
BJP state chief K Annamalai condemned the ruling DMK over the arrest of Sadiq. Ealrier, he had denounced Tamil Nadu as the 'drug capital' of India. He had pointed fingers at Jaffer Sadiq, terming him an 'international druglord' and criticised the DMK for its alleged involvement. After his arrest now, Annamalai urged the authorities to dig deeper into his network and also look into his network as he was close to many DMK leaders.
"The NCB has nabbed the International Drug Lord & DMK functionary Jaffar Sadiq today. With many other DMK leaders moving closely with Jaffar Sadiq in the last 3 years, it is important to understand how Jaffar Sadiq acted as their conduit for Money laundering," said Annamalai in his post.
"On behalf of BJP Tamil Nadu, we request the law enforcement authorities to comb deeply & ensure that Jaffar Sadiq’s network is exposed & busted to ensure the free flow of Drugs in TN under the DMK regime is curtailed," he added.
