The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out raids at multiple locations in Delhi as part of the ongoing money laundering case in connection with the country’s largest drug haul worth ₹21,000 crore from Adani Group’s Mundra port in Gujarat in 2021.
The 2,988kg of Afghan heroin, said to be one of the largest ever drug seizures in the world, was intercepted by the Directorate of Revenue and Intelligence (DRI). The narcotics, concealed in a consignment declared as semi-processed talc stones imported from Afghanistan via Iran, were valued at over ₹21,000 crore in the international market.
Sources in the ED said five premises were raided, including those of Delhi-based businessman Harpreet Singh Talwar alias Kabir Talwar, a man named Shamshudeen, and others, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Talwar, who runs popular nightclubs in Delhi, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in this case in August 2022, and he recently walked out of jail after being granted bail by Gujarat High Court.
The ED had registered the money laundering case in 2021, and the latest searches are being undertaken based on new inputs, including that the narcotics trafficking funds were allegedly invested in nightclubs in Delhi, an ED official said.
“The NIA arrested Kabir Talwar in August 2022 and later chargesheeted him for allegedly taking part in a Pakistan-backed conspiracy to smuggle high-quality drugs into India,” an ED official said.
According to the initial probe by the DRI, the consignment, originating from Afghanistan, was imported by a Vijaywada-based company via Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port to Mundra Port.