- The NCB dismantled a darknet drug network sending over 1,000 parcels across India
- The network, called Team Kalki, operated on darknet based apps for communication
- Two men, Anurag Thakur and Vikas Rathi, formed the partnership while in Tihar Jail
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has dismantled a darknet-based drug trafficking network that, by its own operational count, sent more than 1,000 narcotics parcels to buyers across India - from Delhi to Kerala - between January 2025 and this month.
The network called itself Team Kalki. It ran a vendor account on Dread, a dark web forum, where it had accumulated a four-star rating - a metric that, in the informal economy of darknet markets, signals volume and reliability. It also operated through Session, an encrypted messaging app, to communicate with buyers without exposing identities or locations.
The two men running it, Anurag Thakur and Vikas Rathi, had met in Delhi's Tihar Jail. Rathi had been jailed in a drug-trafficking case by the Delhi Police Special Cell; Thakur in a methamphetamine case by the Crime Branch. The partnership was formed inside the jail, the police said.
After nearly three months of surveillance, the NCB moved against the network in Delhi. The haul included 2,338 LSD blotters, 160 MDMA tablets, approximately 3.6 kg of liquid MDMA, 73.6 grams of charas, and 3.6 grams of amphetamine - seized across 13 domestic parcels and two originating from the Netherlands.
The supply chain ran upstream to vendors in the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany. Payments were made in cryptocurrencies because transactions routed through multiple wallets are difficult to trace.
Distribution inside India relied on Speed Post and private courier services. In parts of Delhi, the network used dead drops - leaving parcels at pre-arranged locations and sending buyers the coordinates, rather than handing anything over directly.
Parcels connected to the network had already been intercepted in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, and Karnataka before the Delhi operation.
The NCB recovered electronic devices and a cryptocurrency wallet from the accused. Both Thakur and Rathi have prior convictions in drug cases. The agency says it is now tracing additional associates and the broader international supply chain.
