Delhi Police arrested the fifth accused in the Rs 5,000-crore drug haul, a UK resident of Indian nationality, at Amritsar Airport while he was attempting to leave the country, officials said.
Jitendra Pal Singh, alias Jassi, 40, had come to India to oversee the drug cartel's operations but was planning to flee after the arrest of four other members, sources said. He has been living in the UK for the last 17 years and has a UK Green Card.
On October 2, the Delhi Police seized over 560 kilograms of cocaine and 40 kilograms of hydroponic marijuana estimated to be worth around Rs 5,620 crore from a godown in south Delhi's Mahipalpur. Four people have already been arrested.
An accused Tushar Goyal, who was arrested Wednesday, is believed to be the mastermind of the syndicate operating in India. Police said that investigators have also come across several photos of Goyal from a social media account where he posed himself with the leaders of the Congress party.
As the alleged Congress link triggered a political row, with the BJP targeting the party, Congress denied any association with Goyal and urged the BJP to "stop misleading the country with lies and deception".
Apart from Jassi and Goyal, the Delhi Police also arrested Himanshu Kumar (27) and Aurangzeb Siddiqui (23) of Delhi and Bharat Kumar Jain (48) of Mumbai.
The probe found that all the four accused were planning to sell a large quantity of drugs in concerts, rave parties and upscale localities in Delhi and other metropolitan cities, according to police. A massive manhunt operation, with several police teams, is underway to trace the other members of the group.
According to police, around a dozen people from India and abroad were allegedly involved in the international syndicate of smuggling of banned drugs from middle-east countries to India.
