A man from Anantnag among four people have been arrested by Delhi Police in connection with a multi-billion heroin racket that was busted in the national capital

The arrests, including of an Afghan national, were made by Delhi police’s Special Cell which also claimed to have recovered a record 354 kilograms of heroin worth over Rs 2,500 crore in the international market.

Officials said the opium grown in various parts of Afghanistan is hidden in different legitimate exports such as talc stone, gypsum powder or basil seeds and then transported in containers to Chabahar Port in Iran.

From there, the consignments are shipped to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai where they are collected by other members of the racket and taken to factories for making the final product.

A senior police official said the Kashmiri suspect has been identified as Rizwan, who used to put up at Ghitorni in Delhi but hails from south Kashmir’s Anantna. The other suspects have been identified as Gurpreet Singh and Gurjot Singh, both residents of Punjab’s Jalandhar and Hazrat Ali, a native of Kandahar in Afghanistan.

A Delhi police statement said it was brought into the notice that a Kashmiri was involved in drug peddling in Delhi and other states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

“We received information that Rizwan was going to deliver contraband in south Delhi’s Ghitorni area on Monday. A trap was laid and the accused was arrested when he was going to deliver a packet of one kilogram of heroin,” officials said.

During questioning, Rizwan disclosed that his patron in drug business was an Afghan national named Isha Khan who recently left India and went to Afghanistan. Khan directed him to contact Gurpreet and Gurjot who were currently operating a drug racket from Faridabad in Haryana, officials said.

Based on the disclosure of Kashmiri, Gurpreet and Gurjot were arrested, he said.

“We recovered 166 kg and 115 kg of heroin from two cars which were parked in a society based on the duo’s information. Later, 70 kg heroin was also recovered from the rented accommodation of both the accused,” police said.

Gurpreet and Gurjot revealed that they were operating the drug racket on the instructions of a man named Navpreet Singh, presently based in Portugal, police said.

Gurpreet met Navpreet in Punjab’s Kapurthala Jail when they were in judicial custody in separate cases, the DCP said.

Based on the disclosure of Kashmiri, Ali was also arrested from Gurgaon and two kg heroin was recovered from his possession. Around 100 kg of different chemicals used in the preparation of heroin was also recovered, police said.