On June 6 in New Delhi, the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) said that they had seized 15,000 LSD drug blots and detained six persons who they believed to be part of a pan-India network of drug traffickers who used the dark web to distribute their products.
On Tuesday, the Narcotics Control Bureau said that they had made their largest drug haul in almost 20 years. The agency has also confiscated Rs4.65 lakh in cash and 2.5 kilogrammes of imported marijuana at the request of the accused. Lysergic acid diethylamide, more often known as LSD, is a synthetic chemical based substance classified as a hallucinogen.
Gyaneshwar Singh, NCB’s Deputy Director General, said the group made use of bitcoin and the dark web, with courier firms handling the bulk of the deliveries. According to the NCB’s deputy director general, “all the dealings were virtual,” and the criminals coordinated their activities using encrypted chat services.
The darknet is a hidden, encrypted subset of the web that is not accessible via standard web browsers or search engines. To avoid being tracked, it makes use of a Tor router. Typically, criminals take use of the darknet’s anonymity to buy and sell malware, narcotics, firearms, and illicit services.
The NCB Deputy Director General announced during a news conference today, “We’ve detained six suspects in two incidents and recovered 15,000 blots of LSD drug… This medicine is available for sale in quantities of 0.1 gramme. It’s harmful since it’s a synthetic medicine. The previous two decades have not seen a seizure of this magnitude.
An NCB officer said that the 15,000 blots of LSD confiscated are 2,500 times the commercial amount.
The agency also confiscated Rs 20 lakh from bank accounts and 4.65 kilogrammes of imported marijuana, the officer added.
The NCB Deputy DG further noted that most of the persons connected in this network are young, college educated, and avid users of LSD.
Since it is very impossible to track, LSD is often smuggled. Five or six blots constitute a commercial amount. Six suspects have been apprehended, and the NCB has seized 15,000 blots. The previous several years have not seen such a large seizure,” he remarked.
The NCB Deputy DG said that in 2021, the Chief Minister of Karnataka had praised the police force for seizing 5,000 blots.
Singh said that the vast network spanned not just several American states, but also Poland, the Netherlands, and the United States. The cartel was broken up by the Delhi zonal team with the cooperation of many units.
LSD is being consumed at an alarming rate in India. The NCB official said that the network was quite extensive, spanning countries such as Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, the National Capital Region (NCR) of India, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.
In addition to the 15,000 LSD blots, he said that 2.5 kilogrammes of imported marijuana and Rs 20 million were also found.
Earlier in 2021, we raided three underground web spaces and arrested forty people,” he said.
