Drug stock worth around Rs 20,900 crore was seized by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials from two shipping containers, which had arrived from Afghanistan through Bandar Abbas port in Iran.
The Vijayawada link came to the fore in the entire case as the consignment of ‘talcum powder’ was imported by Aashi Trading Company, whose address is a yellow colored house located on a secluded corner of a street in the city’s Satyanarayanapuram area.
The place was rented in the name of a trading company by a woman from Chennai, identified as Govindaraju Durga Poorna Vaishali.
DRI sources said the company’s contact number is linked to Machavaram Sudhakar, Vaishali’s husband and a native of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
The company has an Import and Export License (IEC code) in the name of Vaishali, while its GST registration was done on August 18, 2020.
The couple has been living in a rented house in Kolapakam area of the city in Chennai for the last eight years.
Sources said Vaishali has been taken into custody by the DRI, while the main accused Sudhakar is absconding.
Vijayawada Police Commissioner B Srinivasulu told TOI that the consignment was actually going to Delhi.
“Heroin in the guise of talcum powder was intended to reach Delhi, not Vijayawada. As of now, we have not found any evidence of any Vijayawada connection in the whole matter except the address of the importing company. We are coordinating with DRI are and are probing the matter from all angles,” he said, adding that Ashi Trading appears to have been used as a cover company to obtain import and export licenses for illegal smuggling.
Except for the name of the firm and the GST registration number, which was typed on A4 sheet paper and pasted on the wall of the house, there is nothing in the vicinity to suggest that a company exists there.
People living in the neighborhood told that this place has been closed for several months.
However, before that, he admits that he has seen the consignment being dropped and picked up.
A woman living in the same neighborhood said, “We were told once by a caretaker of that place that the company deals in food items like rice, fruits, vegetables etc, but this place is closed for a long time.”
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