Drug Money – Part II
By Venkatesh Raghavan*
Mumbai: So far, the cause of the money trail of the narcotic drug trade was being discussed. To be more precise, two corners of the money laundering racket that keeps the economy, namely the mafia and Bollywood. There are two other corners that will be dealt with in this concluding article, namely cricket and politics.
The drug mafia funds films as a front operation and earns high returns from the movement of locally grown narcotic drugs to foreign destinations. That’s the first part of the story. Now it has to be understood that drug trade has another parallel for churning money. That comes from the betting mafia that supports the most popularized game in India, namely cricket. Now the money from the betting racket serves two purposes. It first generates revenue for the purchase of expensive narcotic drugs that come into India from the US, Canada and Latin America. It secondly ensures that the supply chain remains intact with the creation of what can be summed as a corporate structure.
Also read: Bollywood & Drugs: Where does the supply chain originate?
Not so long ago, in the 1960s, the narcotic trade was confined to the Pathan gang which supplied highly priced drugs to the opulent film diaspora. Over the decades, it has become a highly sophisticated operation falling under the gamut of organized crime. The air route supports African Americans and blacks from African countries who find India a fertile ground to serve as a consumer market. With the advent of the 90s the drug mafia found it convenient to use women as suppliers to avert suspicion from the law-enforcing authorities. Subsequently, when the law caught up with this, the supply chain grew discreet with locations like discotheques and pubs having a pre-assigned arrangement for their regular clients.
Now we come to the fourth corner of the quadrangle. It is stating the obvious that without covert political protection the racket will never be able to flourish. Right now, when one looks at the way investigations are being conducted by the three nodal agencies, namely the CBI, the ED and NCB in the Sushant Rajput case, it clearly throws up the involvement of two corners of the quadrangle. While the CBI is pursuing the names of politicians involved in the case, the NCB is investigating the drug angle, by calling on actors and actresses who have been named in the supply chain.
The four borders that generate and circulate money into the Indian financial system including the equity markets are owned by very powerful people who remain behind the scenes and well out of the focus of any media glare. Now the question arises who are these people and how do they manage to operate with such stealth. The answers are not so easy. However, an indication can be given towards the identity of these operators. The well-known dons mentioned in the media like Anees Ibrahim or say Arun Gawli or Rajan are just marketing names for the mafia to pose a front. The real dons or operators are always behind the scenes and their names will never find any mention in any newspaper or television channel.
-Concluded
*The writer is a Mumbai-based journalist. He is the author of bestseller thriller, Operation Drug Mafia (Times Group Books).
