The Indian head of operations of the Afghanistan drug cartel, several modules of which have recently been busted by the police,had started of as an auto mechanic at the age of 10 in the national Capital.
Tifal Nau Khez, whose arrest on Tuesday led to the seizure of 130kg heroin from Navi Mumbai, had been eyeing the European contraband market after making his mark in India, said Delhi Police special cell officers who are associated with the investigation into the drug smuggling racket.
The officers said Nau Khez would have fled to Turkey had he not been arrested because of the recent drug busts related to his cartel. A native of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, Khez had come to Delhi to earn to support his parents and seven siblings. In Delhi, he eventually started driving an auto rickshaw in the south and southeast Delhi.
He also tried his hand in the cosmetics and garments business, worked as a driver, then as a chemical dealer and a property agent. Police said Khez, 35, was first arrested in Punjab in 2013 where he was caught with 250gm heroin. “During his stay in Amritsar jail, he made many contacts, most of them were involved in drugs smuggling. After his release, he came back to Delhi and started driving an auto rickshaw. During this time, he came in contact with Sheikh, a fellow Afghan, in Lajpat Nagar,” said deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Manishi Chandra.
Chandra said, after a few casual meetings, Sheikh gave him a small consignment of heroin and asked him to sell it in Delhi. “Khez managed to sell the heroin in Delhi with the help of contacts he had made in Amritsar jail. Subsequently, he managed to sell a bigger amount as well. Khez gradually grew up in the ranks of Afghan drug traders and made contacts with Alokozai, an Afghanistan-based handler, who was also arrested on Tuesday,” the DCP said.
Chandra said the heroin processing laboratory which was busted in south Delhi’s Zakir Nagar was set up by Khez. Police said Alokozai, under the guise of a wholesale dry fruits dealer, had been handling the consignment of heroin which was seized from a port in Navi Mumbai on Thursday night.
The DCP said Khez also worked as an illicit dealer of a restricted chemical called Dextromethorphan, which is used as an adulterant in heroin.
Chandra said Khez had been planning to settle down in Turkey from where he wanted to get access to the European contraband markets.
“ His processing-cum-reconstitution plants in India would then be controlled from foreign shores. His meeting with Haji, the Afghan drug lord based in Dubai, was on the cards in the coming months and he had already obtained a tourist visa,” Chandra said.
The DCP said Khez is fond of fast cars and Hollywood movie series Fast & Furious. He has been married twice and has five daughters. Two of his brothers are already settled in Dubai, he said.
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