PANAJI
In a massive crackdown on cartels, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested a father-daughter duo for smuggling a cocktail of party drugs among 'white' tourists in the coastal State. Ambika, the 19-year-old Russian was caught with 50 pills of Ecstasy on Sunday while the raiding sleuths, in a follow-up action, recovered 57 ecstasy pills, 40 grams of MD (mephedrone), and 55 grams of high-quality hashish, in addition to Rs 4,50,420 cash from the teen’s British father Jason Lee.
NCB’s preliminary investigation has exposed one of the biggest international cartels operating from Goa for a considerable period, where the suppliers’ customers were foreign tourists.
“NCB-Goa Sub-Zone Unit received input about a drug syndicate operated by foreign nationals in North Goa. Accordingly, intelligence sources were contacted, after which details about a young Russian lady named Ambika were analyzed. She was operating in association with another key associate who was informed to be a foreigner too,” NCB Zonal Director Amit Ghawate said.
The NCB laid a trap upon reliable information that Ambika will arrive at Uddo beach in Siolim with the consignment.
“We set up a trap to physically identify and apprehend the lady before she distributed the contraband to others. On confirming her identity, our team intercepted Ambika and during spot preliminary questioning, 50 pills of ecstasy were recovered from her possession. She was taken into custody immediately for further investigation,” the officer said.
In her interrogation, Ambika revealed her associate’s identity as J Lee, a British national based in Mapusa. Accordingly, after a set out held by the team, Lee was arrested in a late-night operation.
Ghawate informed that Lee, the father of the arrested teenager, was apprehended after a brief chase along with the drugs and Indian currency notes in different denominations. During his interrogation, Lee admitted that the cash recovered was the sale proceeds of the drugs, and a part of it was their payment whereas the rest was to be used to buy fresh consignments of drugs.
“The report describes a significant seizure in terms of quantity, quality, underground nexus, and foreigner involvement in drug syndicates. They supplied drugs only to white tourists and had been operating in Goa for a long time,” the officer stated.
