John F Kennedy, Franklin D Roosevelt, Invoice Clinton – a clutch of names extra generally related to the White Home have, over the previous 12 months, discovered themselves relegated to the comparatively ignominious ranks of India’s drug-trading circles.
Operatives working with offshoots of Mexican drug cartels in India have began utilizing aliases of former US presidents, American TV present characters, and a few Bollywood actors to masks their actual identities, officers conscious of the probe by the Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB) has mentioned.
“Mexican cartels run the drug operations from overseas. It’s they who join all of the characters. As a result of medication are sourced by courier/darknet and conferences are held over video calls on completely different apps, each particular person is given a pretend title,” the officer added.
As an example, throughout the October 25 bust on a methamphetamine laboratory in Higher Noida run by the Mexican outfit Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), officers got here throughout the title Roosewelt (misspelt with a W).
Your complete operation, officers mentioned, is run utilizing these aliases. No one concerned within the community is conscious of one another’s actual names or identities, and all exchanges are revamped encrypted messaging companies. The operatives use these pretend names whereas speaking in-person or by textual content messages.
“Nobody concerned within the operations is aware of the true title of the opposite particular person,” mentioned the officers.
On June 6, 2023, when NCB arrested a lady who was a part of a Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) smuggling cartel, she was identified by her associates solely as Woman Windsor (borrowed from UK Royal Household’s surname).
Officers have thus far discovered aliases comparable to Kennedy_John, Jimkerry (it’s unclear whether or not the pretend title was impressed by actor Jim Carrey or former US secretary of state John Kerry). In addition they got here throughout a Clinton, JohnAbrahim007 and even Soulbadman (borrowed from Saul Goodman, a personality from the Breaking Unhealthy and Higher Name Saul TV collection).
In Breaking Unhealthy, Saul Goodman is the authorized counsel for the cancer-addled protagonist Walter White, who cooks methamphetamine and turns into a drug lord.
Between June and August 2023, NCB arrested ninepeople concerned with a cartel and seized over 29,000 LSD stamps. In that case too, the Indian drug ring named their cartel Zambada, after fugitive Mexican drug runner Ismael Zambada Garcia.
Investigations revealed the gang sourced LSD from a darknet operator who glided by the title Dr Seuss – the pen title of standard American writer Theodor Seuss Geisel.
In 2024 alone, NCB has arrested a minimum of 4 Mexicans nationals despatched to India to supervise methamphetamine operations. NCB has been coordinating and holding joint conferences with the Drug Enforcement Administration of america to behave on Indian cartels with hyperlinks to Mexican cartels.
“The drug enterprise at the moment is all on-line. There isn’t any bodily assembly, so these cartel operators give you such names. A second particular person arrested earlier this 12 months within the case of producing methamphetamine had taken up a pretend Mexican title. He’s from north India (Haryana) however was given the title David Lopez,” the official added.
The latest proof of such alleged drug sellers utilizing pretend names and hiding it from everybody together with their staff was evident final month when NCB arrested a Mexican nationwide, who was despatched by the Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion.
“To all Indian nationals concerned within the operations, he was Uncle Bob. His title was saved as Uncle Bob even within the cellphone of principal accused Amit Singh, a Delhi-based businessman. In all their mails and different types of communication, the Mexican was known as Uncle Bob by Amit Singh. Amit Singh, too, had an alias. To the Mexican he was Ravi Gupta, and to the harmless safety guard outdoors his manufacturing facility in Higher Noida, he was Rahul. That is the extent of secrecy they keep,” a second officer added.
