"Gifts from the Gulf - The rise and fall of Aftab Ansari" continues.....

‘‘‘Controlled deliveries’’’ are operational tactics often adopted by law enforcement agencies wherein contraband consignments of drugs or arms or fake currency etc. are allowed to ‘flow’ under controlled conditions. They are not intercepted even though there is definite information on their illicit movement. The objective behind such tactics is to get at the eventual recipient, usually the big fish of the smuggling ring.

Couriers and other intermediaries are, usually, mere foot soldiers who receive paltry sums of money. Sometimes they may not even know who the ultimate beneficiaries are or what the consignment contains. If one or more of them can be won over or compromised, either at the source or at any other stage of the supply-chain, the consignment can be trailed, the entire racket busted and the kingpins brought to book. Of course, the deal between law enforcement officers and the informer often is to let him go scot free, besides rewarding him suitably.


The EOU-5 of the CBI was one of the many branches of the Economic Offences Wing under my charge, of which I was then the Joint Director. This Branch, in collaboration with the BSF, spearheaded four operations involving ‘controlled deliveries’.

On February 24, 2000 twenty three kilograms of high grade heroin were seized from one Haji Gul Khan, a Pakistani, and Abdullah, an Afghan national. The contraband was hidden in secret cavities of giant-sized aluminum ‘‘‘degchees’’’ (cooking utensils). The seizure took place opposite Filmistan Cinema in Old Delhi and was one of the biggest drug seizures of those times.

The same team of officers apprehended four Mumbai-based criminals on July 24, 2000 at Ahmedabad and recovered 25 pistols, 50 magazines, 200 cartridges and 6.325 kilograms of high grade heroin concealed in a truck spare wheel.

Interrogation of the arrested criminals disclosed that the Dawood Ibrahim gang was behind the consignment that was sent with the blessings of the notorious Pakistani agency—Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The weapons were meant for underworld operations in Mumbai and the drugs to fund the operations.

To be continued.....