The Bengaluru police on Monday busted several drug peddlers in the city and among them were two delivery persons -- Aziz Niyaz, a Rapido captain and Guru Prasad, a Dunzo delivery person for allegedly supplying drugs. The Halasuru Police, who arrested the two men said that they took Rs 500 each from the drug peddlers to supply synthetic drugs, marijuana and its byproducts to customers.
Officers with the Anti-Narcotics Wing of the Central Crime Branch say that drug peddlers are using delivery apps and other mobility apps to hire supply agents. Police sources said that the number of such delivery personnel involved in the drug supply has increased in Bengaluru over the last five months and were exceptionally high during the lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19.
“Most of the drugs supplied via delivery boys are in smaller quantities and most of the people who use these delivery boys for supply are student dealers,” a CCB source said.
In several cases, where student dealers were arrested, CCB sources said that the delivery personnel would not even know that they are supplying drugs as it is placed inside shoes, which are put inside a box and wrapped up in cloth bags. “There are many ways of concealing drugs. Some of the student dealers keep packets of synthetic drugs inside food carriers where some boxes have food and one of the boxes in the carrier will have the drugs. Since it smells like freshly cooked meals, the delivery persons don’t suspect,” the source said.
However, over the last one year, especially during the lockdown, police say that the delivery agents have also begun making deals with peddlers for delivering the drugs. “Many of these peddlers use delivery apps generally too. They source phone numbers and make deals with the delivery personnel. What happens here is that the peddlers prey on their need to earn more money. A lot of them have families of five or seven people to feed and this is easy money. So when a delivery should happen, and to avoid getting caught, the delivery agents are called, who come with their uniforms and pick up the contraband and deliver it,” the CCB source said.
In many cases, the delivery persons do not know what kind of contraband they are delivering, sources said. Besides, several of them, according to the police, have been instrumental in surveilling drug peddlers. “During the lockdown, many delivery persons were transporting small quantities of marijuana and weed oil. We were able to bust rackets as we watched the movement of delivery persons. It is very hard to say whether they are actually involved as suppliers but during surveillance, we found the links, especially when the same delivery person was moving from one particular location and going out for delivery for other locations,” the source said.
Police say that several students, who fall into debt traps with drug peddlers have ended up dealing drugs to their friends to repay the debts. Several other student dealers have also begun dealing drugs to their classmates to make easy money. “These are the students who mostly use Dunzo or Swiggy delivery agents. But there is no link to these companies. Just the delivery personnel so far they have been operating independently,” the source added.
The Bengaluru police began busting drug peddlers in the city after several celebrities were named in the drug case that the Central Crime Brach is currently probing. The CCB has so far arrested actor Ragini Dwivedi, party planner Viren Khanna, Ravi Shankar, Ragini's friend, Rahul Shetty, an architect and marketing agent, who is a friend of actor Sanjjana Galrani, along with alleged drug peddlers Loum Pepper Samba, Prashanth Ranka, Rahul Tonse and Niyaz. On Tuesday, the police took actor Sanjjana Galrani into custody for questioning her alleged role in organising parties where drugs were allegedly procured and consumed.