Drug syndicate busted: how traffickers sourced and distributed LSD, NCB reveals details

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday said it has made the "largest-ever" single operation seizure of about 15,000 LSD blots in the country and arrested six people after it busted an international drugs trafficking network operating on the darknet.

The seizure, as per officials, is estimated to be worth over Rs 10 crore in the international market (about Rs 5K-7K per blot) and all the six who have been taken into custody, beginning late last month, are students and youngsters who wanted to make "easy money" by remaining anonymous within the deep layers of secret internet-based apps and messenger service like WICKR.

Possession of 0.1 gram of LSD (about six blots), which is the commercial quantity for the hallucinogenic drug, invites strict legal action under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, leading to a denial of bail and rigorous imprisonment in jail for the person who trades or consumes it, an NCB officer said.

NCB's deputy DG Singh said the latest seizure of about 15,000 LSD blots is 2,500 times of the commercial quantity.

He said the LSD seized by them was sourced from Poland and the Netherlands and this syndicate was trafficking it across various states by taking payments through cryptocurrency and UPI, and the contraband was shipped through couriers and postal networks.

The NCB, the officials said, is trying to freeze the crypto funds too. "The suppliers and consumers intercepted by us had no personal interaction and every contact was on the darknet," Singh said.

He said the operation was undertaken by a special team of the Delhi zonal unit of the federal anti-narcotics agency after they "patrolled" the darknet for many hours.

Darknet refers to the deep hidden internet platform that is used for narcotics sale, exchange of pornographic content and other illegal activities by using the secret alleys of the onion router (ToR) to stay away from the surveillance of law enforcement agencies. Apart from the LSD blots, 2.32 kgs of ganja and Rs 4.65 lakh cash have been seized while bank deposits worth Rs 20 lakh have been frozen, the deputy DG said.

NCB zonal director (Delhi) Gyanendra Kumar Singh said those arrested are mostly educated and are young.

"One is a student who is from Goa but enrolled at a private university in Noida, another is a Delhi boy who was trying to send some of these blots to Kashmir and a girl who has been arrested from the NCR," the zonal director said.

A supplier based in Jaipur and a man from Kerala have also been arrested, he said.