The threads of the international drug money laundering network recently busted by the Enforcement Directorate in partnership with the Australian Federal Police are suspected to be spread far and wide -- from Thailand, Hong Kong, Mexico and Australia to the United Kingdom and the United States.
Hong Kong has emerged as a common transit point where several companies are being floated to launder drug money in the garb of export/import of goods to various countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. Prime accused Paramdeep Singh Arora, who ostensibly dealt in bullion at Amritsar, had allegedly set up three offices in Australia, two in the United States and one in Hong Kong for the purpose.
Punjab police have also accused Paramdeep and his brother Gagandeep of smuggling heroin from Pakistan on the pretext of sugar import/export. While the “kingpin’s” associate Gaurav Gupta was arrested by the ED in Delhi, his suspected accomplice Rajnish alias Bunty Sharma was recently held in the UK and another contact Sachin Sharma was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration in the US on charges of drug money laundering.
The agency, in cooperation with the Australian police, has also developed inputs indicating that the network had links with drug cartels in Australia and Thailand and could well have dealings with Mexican drug syndicates, as -- according to sources -- they have recently started developing contacts in Thailand and other parts of East Asia for expanding their network.
The Australian police have strong reasons to suspect the network’s connections with the “Barbaro” drug syndicate that dealt in synthetic and psychoactive drug MDMA, popularly known as ecstasy. The cartel was busted after the seizure of 15 million MDMA tablets that had arrived in Melbourne in June 2007 in a shipping container from Naples in Italy.
Barbaro was the head of the trafficking syndicate and was a close associate of another drug dealer Saverio Zirilli, convicted in the same case.
Barbaro and his associates were later arrested and prosecuted for drug trafficking, including attempting to smuggle in cocaine from South America. Pleading guilty, he also admitted to his involvement in a conspiracy to import huge quantities of pseudoephedrine from India to Australia and money laundering. About two years ago, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
