3 kg Drugs And A Modified Creta: Major Network Busted In Kerala

When Kerala's Excise on April 23 seized nearly 3.5 kg of MDMA, one of the biggest synthetic drug seizures in the region, little did it know the trail of investigation would send an 11-member investigation team on a 15,000-km hunt across five states, from the Rajasthan border to a hideout near Nepal.

Here is the thrilling story that leads to the Nigerian national still out at large.

Shafeeq PK, 36, from Malappuram, and YouTube influencer Fathima Nasreen, 20, were arrested, but the investigators soon realised they may have caught only the couriers of a much bigger operation. What followed resembled a cross-country manhunt.

Rs 5-Lakh Bribe Offer Opens A Bigger Trail

Four days after the seizure, Excise officers summoned the registered owner of the Creta, Umar Farooq, for questioning.

According to the Excise press release, Farooq allegedly offered the Assistant Excise Commissioner Rs 5 lakh as a bribe after realising that investigators suspected his involvement. He was arrested the next day.

Phone analysis then pointed investigators towards Muhammed Mustafa alias Bilal, 28, from Tirur. 

Tracking him was not easy. Investigators say Bilal used WhatsApp registered to a UAE number on a phone without a SIM card. He allegedly connected to other people's Wi-Fi networks to communicate, leaving investigators without the conventional mobile-tower trail used to locate suspects.

The SIT eventually traced him to Kankavli in Maharashtra.

Excise says Bilal was preparing to travel towards Delhi and eventually escape to Nepal when a six-member Kerala team caught him on April 28.

Investigators allege Bilal and Shafeeq were reinvesting profits from earlier drug trafficking to build a much larger narcotics network.

The investigation also threw up another disturbing lead: Bilal was allegedly linked to trafficking Chinese-made pistols, purchased for around Rs 85,000 near the Rajasthan border and sold elsewhere in India.

Two Cars, Nine Officers And A Road Trip To Rajasthan

On May 5, nine SIT officers began another journey. With Bilal and Shafeeq in custody, they drove in two vehicles all the way to Jaipur.

Along the route, the team collected CCTV footage, toll plaza records and lodge details to reconstruct the alleged MDMA procurement route.

Their search led to a flat in Jaipur's Mansarovar area allegedly used by Hiran Karthikeyan, 31, an Alappuzha native with multiple cases against him in different states.

But Hiran had disappeared.

The SIT learned that he and his associate Aromal, alias Gagan, 22, had travelled to Siliguri in West Bengal, apparently intending to cross the border into Nepal.

Like Bilal, Hiran allegedly avoided conventional mobile tracking. His WhatsApp was registered to an Armenian number, while he communicated through Wi-Fi.

Three excise officers flew to Siliguri. This time, they became tourists.

Kerala Officers Turn 'Tourists' Near Nepal

The officers moved around Siliguri's Green Park tourist area without revealing their identities, searching for the two men among homestays and tourists.

Eventually, they found the homestay. 

On May 12, Hiran and Aromal were arrested.

The suspects were produced before a Jalpaiguri court, a transit warrant was secured, and the Kerala team flew them back to Kozhikode.

The department says one decision proved critical to the operation: silence.

After the first two arrests, Kerala Excise had largely stopped publicising developments in the investigation. There was a reason.

Investigators discovered that one suspect had stored photographs of Excise intelligence officers that had appeared on social media after the initial bust. Officers suspected the pictures were being circulated so members of the network could recognise investigators approaching their hideouts.

The information blackout meant Hiran and Aromal apparently did not know how close the investigation had come. Excise believes that helped prevent them from immediately crossing into Nepal.

In Tamil Nadu, Women Officers Changed Their Identity

The next hunt took investigators south.

Police records and financial transactions allegedly showed that Shafeeq was using a SIM card and Axis Bank account belonging to Ramsiya, 26, described by investigators as his live-in partner.

Her location led officers to Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu.

She was hiding in a densely populated residential locality, Excise says, making a conventional police-style raid risky. So the women officers on the SIT changed tactics.

They entered the neighbourhood posing as Tamil Nadu government officials offering financial assistance to divorced women.

The cover worked. Ramsiya was located and arrested on June 5.

Investigators say they recovered a book containing records of suspected drug transactions and glass-tube devices allegedly used for consuming MDMA.

Then Came The Nigerian Connection

The investigation eventually brought officers back to Jaipur, where another search of Hiran's flat allegedly yielded MDMA and other evidence.

During questioning, Hiran gave investigators a crucial lead.

He allegedly told them that his supplier was a Nigerian national he had met while lodged in Bengaluru's Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in another NDPS case.

He knew the man only as "Frank Maxin".

Investigators took Hiran to the Bengaluru prison and showed him photographs of Nigerian nationals who had been lodged there during the relevant period. He identified a man.

Kerala Excise says further investigation established his identity as Emmanuel Afam, 46.

The SIT alleges Afam used around 19 Indian and Nigerian mobile numbers and communicated through phones without SIM cards, Wi-Fi networks and applications capable of scrambling IP addresses.

Investigators obtained his travel records through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office.

Afam has now been named as the eighth accused. A Vadakara NDPS court issued an arrest warrant against him, while a Look Out Circular was issued through the Bureau of Immigration.

He remains among the accused yet to be arrested.

The Car Itself Was Built To Carry Drugs

The Creta that triggered the entire investigation also had another secret.

Excise says the hidden compartment used to transport MDMA had been specially fabricated at a workshop in Kankavli, Maharashtra.

Officers travelled there posing as customers interested in modifying their own vehicle.

They eventually arrested workshop operator Sandesh Mohan Walke, 27.

The investigation also led to the arrest of Noushad, 49, from Kozhikode, who allegedly purchased MDMA from Shafeeq and Umar Farooq and transferred money into Ramsiya's account.

15,000 Km, 8,000 Calls, 160 Tower Locations

By the time the operation reached this stage, the numbers showed the scale of the investigation.

The SIT says its officers travelled approximately 15,000 km across five states, including two trips to Jaipur, three to Kankavli, three to Bengaluru and operations in Siliguri and Tenkasi.

They examined around 8,000 phone calls, more than 50 mobile phones, 160 tower locations, over 30 bank accounts and nearly 100 social media accounts.

Ten toll plazas were checked.

Five lodges and eight houses were raided.

Apart from the original seizure, another 24 grams of MDMA was recovered along with 13 mobile phones, four CCTV hard disks and around 50 documentary exhibits.

The operation was carried out under the supervision of Kozhikode Deputy Excise Commissioner Jimmy Joseph, with Assistant Excise Commissioner S. Nijumon as investigating officer. Wayanad Assistant Excise Commissioner RN Baiju was among the senior officers involved.

For Kerala Excise, the case that started beside a highway in Kozhikode had become something much larger.

Suspects allegedly communicated through foreign WhatsApp numbers and borrowed Wi-Fi. Cars were modified with secret drug compartments. Officers discovered their own photographs on suspects' phones. Women investigators assumed false identities. Another team pretended to be tourists while hunting two men near the Nepal border.

It started with one Creta and 3.5 kg of MDMA on a Kerala highway. Fifteen thousand kilometres later, the trail had crossed five states, uncovered an alleged arms link and reached a Nigerian suspect at the centre of an interstate synthetic-drug investigation.