Karachi gang used cab service to deliver drugs

KARACHI: A gang arrested for selling drugs in the city used cars registered with private taxi service to deliver the contrabands to clients, police sources said.

Three people, including a woman, were apprehended for delivering drugs to various houses and educational institutes, mostly in the posh areas of the metropolis, Geo News reported on Wednesday.

An FIR was also registered against the three, namely Mehwish alias Sonia, Usman Shakil and Saad Rafique, who were nabbed at Saba Avenue in the Defence area. The suspects were remanded into judicial custody by the court on Friday.

Police sources said Usman had registered his car with the company to avoid any unnecessary checking by police and Rangers.

Suspects told police that they would escape thorough checking by telling police that they are registered with a taxi company. Acting on the initial investigation from the suspects, police carried out raids in the Drig Road area, expecting to come across a huge den of drugs. However, no arrests were made. SSP South Javed Akbar Riaz on Thursday told Geo News that the group had been working in the areas for the past on year and that police had information on the peddlers. At least two of the suspects were college graduates, he added. Commenting on the modus operandi of the group, the SSP said Sonia would approach young people through social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, befriend them, and lure them by giving free drugs.

The police official also said the arrested suspects were merely suppliers and headed by another group of people.

“We have information that there is some important person in Drig Road [area] from whom the suspects take drugs from [to sell],” he had said.

Police were carrying out routine checking when the drug peddlers’ car was stopped. Upon checking, ice and hashish, wrapped in small packets, were recovered from the car, SHO Aurangzeb Khattak had said on Wednesday.

According to police, the initial investigation revealed that Mehwish had access to various schools and universities in posh areas, where she would visit on different pretexts and sell drugs to students. The group used to sell drugs in houses in posh areas too.

The suspects sold crystal, hashish, heroin and other drugs to their clients, police added.