Police seize 208 kg of cocaine worth Rs 2,080 crore from west Delhi, second big haul in a week
New Delhi, Oct 10: In the second big drug haul in a week, Delhi Police has seized 208 kg of cocaine worth Rs 2,080 crore from a rented shop in west Delhi, an official said on Thursday evening.
The drugs were hidden inside plastic packets of snacks with 'Tasty Treat' and 'Chatpata Mixture' written on them. About 20-25 such packets kept in cartons were recovered from a small narrow shop in west Delhi's Ramesh Nagar area, the official said.
The seizure is linked to an earlier recovery of 562 kg of drugs worth over Rs 5,000 crore from southwest Delhi's Mahipalpur, he said.
He further said the recovered seizure weighs around 208 kg, which is worth Rs 2,080 crore in international market.
Official sources said the consignment was kept there by an Indian origin UK citizen who is now on the run.
"We got a tip off during investigations of our previous seizure and arrest. On Thursday evening, a team of the Special Cell was sent to the shop and recovered the consignment," a police officer said.
The UK citizen, who is identified by the police, managed to escape before the arrival of the team. He had taken the shop on rent a few days ago, the officer said, adding two people including the owner of the shop have been detained and questioned.
The owner told the police that the shop was taken on rent for business related to garments, the officer said.
It is suspected that the UK citizen wanted to transport the drug consignment to other parts of the country but he fled after the police's previous seizure, he said.
The Special Cell, on October 2, had seized over 560 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana estimated to be worth Rs 5,620 crore from a godown in Mahipalpur in south Delhi and arrested four people. Two more persons were subsequently apprehended from Amritsar and Chennai.
Earlier in the day, the Special Cell arrested a man identified as Akhlak, a native of Hapur, Uttar Pradesh. This was the seventh person to be arrested in the case.
The police sources said the syndicate was allegedly run by a Dubai-based businessman Virender Basoya. He was allegedly running the racket with the help of Tushar Goyal and Jitender Gill alias Jassi, both arrested by the police, they said.
The police have also issued a look out circular (LOC) against Basoya, who is on the run. The police suspect that Basoya is a part of an international syndicate which has given different works to different people.
Majority of syndicate members do not know each other and they were operating on the basis of code names on social media, the police sources said.
A senior police officer, who is privy to the investigations, said so far 700 kg of cocaine, worth over Rs 7,000 crore, has been recovered from the national capital so far.
The seizures are the part of same syndicate which which had brought consignment via sea route to Goa from South American countries.
It is suspected some more such consignments are kept or already transported to other destinations, the officer said.
He said the police teams are conducting raids at various parts of Delhi and NCR and trying to nab the other co-accused of the drug syndicate.
#WATCH | Delhi Police Special Cell has recovered a consignment of cocaine from a closed shop in Ramesh Nagar. About 200 kg of drugs have been recovered, whose value in the international market is more than Rs 2,000 crore. This drug was kept in packets of namkeen: Delhi Police… pic.twitter.com/B45xgz1Afp
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) October 10, 2024
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Netanyahu recommends his Cabinet approve Hezbollah cease-fire proposal
Beirut, Nov 26: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he would recommend his cabinet adopt a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah, as Israeli warplanes struck across Lebanon, killing at least 23 people.
The Israeli military also issued a flurry of evacuation warnings — a sign it was aiming to inflict punishment on Hezbollah down to the final moments before any ceasefire takes hold. For the first time in the conflict, Israeli ground troops reached parts of Lebanon's Litani River, a focal point of the emerging deal.
In a televised statement, Netanyahu said he would present the ceasefire to Cabinet ministers later on Tuesday, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting.
Netanyahu said the vote was expected later Tuesday. It was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would go into effect, and the exact terms of the deal were not released. The deal does not affect Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which shows no signs of ending.
The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously have not been targeted. The warnings, coupled with fear that Israel was ratcheting up attacks before a ceasefire, sent residents fleeing. Traffic was gridlocked, and some cars had mattresses tied to them. Dozens of people, some wearing their pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed loudly overhead.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, kept up its rocket fire, triggering air raid sirens across northern Israel.
Lebanese officials have said Hezbollah also supports the deal. If approved by all sides, the deal would be a major step toward ending the Israel-Hezbollah war that has inflamed tensions across the region and raised fears of an even wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah's patron, Iran.
The deal calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. Thousands of Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor all sides' compliance.
But implementation remains a major question mark. Israel has demanded the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations. Lebanese officials have rejected writing that into the proposal. Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz insisted on Tuesday that the military would strike Hezbollah if the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, doesn't provide “effective enforcement” of the deal.
“If you don't act, we will act, and with great force,” Katz said, speaking with UN special envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Tuesday that Israel's security concerns had been addressed in the deal also brokered by France.
“There is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire. Otherwise, Lebanon will fall apart,” Borrell told reporters in Italy on the sidelines of a Group of Seven meeting. He said France would participate on the ceasefire implementation committee at Lebanon's request.
Bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs continues
Even as Israeli, US, Lebanese and international officials have expressed growing optimism over a ceasefire, Israel has continued its campaign in Lebanon, which it says aims to cripple Hezbollah's military capabilities.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday levelled a residential building in the central Beirut district of Basta — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near the city's downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Three people were killed in a separate strike in Beirut and three in a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state media said another 10 people were killed in the eastern Baalbek province. Israel says it targets Hezbollah fighters and their infrastructure.
Earlier, Israeli jets struck at least six buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs. One strike slammed near the country's only airport, sending plumes of smoke into the sky. The airport has continued to function despite its location on the Mediterranean coast next to the densely populated suburbs where many of Hezbollah's operations are based.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in the suburbs, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where UNIFIL is headquartered.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told The Associated Press that peacekeepers will not evacuate.
Other strikes hit in the southern city of Tyre, where the Israeli military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander.
The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few kilometres from the Israeli border.
Previous ceasefire hopes were dashed
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the strongest Iranian-backed force in the region, would likely significantly calm regional tensions that have led to fears of a direct, all-out war between Israel and Iran. It's not clear how the ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Hezbollah had long insisted that it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ends, but it dropped that condition.
Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have been exchanging barrages ever since.
Israel escalated its campaign of bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country's north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon.
After previous hopes for a ceasefire were dashed, U.S. officials cautioned that negotiations were not yet complete and noted there could be last-minute hitches that delay or destroy an agreement.
“Nothing is done until everything is done,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
While the ceasefire proposal is expected to be approved if Netanyahu brings it to a vote in his security Cabinet, one hard-line member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he would oppose it. He said on X that a deal with Lebanon would be a “big mistake” and a “missed historic opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah.”
