2 months ago
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The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has dismantled a pan-India cause organisation web operating nether the sanction ‘Team Kalki’ done the darknet since January 2025. Two accused, identified by the bureau arsenic Anurag Thakur and his subordinate Vikas Rathi, person been arrested truthful far.
During the operation, the NCB seized 2,338 LSD blotters; 160 MDMA (Ecstasy) pills weighing implicit 77 gm; 73.61 gm of charas (hashish); 3.64 gm of amphetamine; and 3.6 kg of liquid MDMA from 13 domestically intercepted parcels, and 2 parcels originating from the Netherlands and linked to the network.
‘Team Kalki’ was being operated by the 2 accused, who are “habitual offenders and were antecedently arrested successful cases registered nether the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act”, the bureau said.
“Vikas Rathi had earlier been lodged successful Tihar Jail successful transportation with a charas trafficking lawsuit registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell, portion Anurag Thakur had been imprisoned successful a methamphetamine trafficking lawsuit registered by the Delhi Police Crime Branch,” it said connected Sunday (March 8, 2026).
Both were successful Tihar Jail astir the aforesaid time, during which they came unneurotic and aboriginal operated the darknet cause network, the NCB said.
“Initially, the accused were progressive connected the darkweb forum ‘Dread’. Once established there, they besides started their operations done the encrypted ‘Session’ messaging exertion for vending and bid fulfilment,” the Central bureau said.
Its archetypal probe has indicated that the web had a pan-India organisation footprint, the NCB said. Under the scanner are immoderate consignments intercepted and seized by instrumentality enforcement agencies earlier transportation successful Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, and Karnataka.
The web is suspected to person dispatched much than 1,000 consignments since January 2025. A cryptocurrency wallet linked to the cognition has besides been detected.
The accused sourced LSD and MDMA from planetary darknet vendors based successful the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany. Orders from customers crossed India were received done encrypted platforms.
“Upon receiving orders from customers, 1 of the accused would relay the bid details to his associate, who handled the packaging and dispatch of the narcotic consignments. The drugs were subsequently sent to customers crossed assorted parts of the state done courier and parcel services,” the bureau said.
The probe besides uncovered the alleged usage of the “dead drop” transportation technique, wherein parcels containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances were placed astatine pre-determined locations alternatively of being handed implicit straight to customers.
Buyers were subsequently informed of the determination details, enabling them to cod the parcels. This method was utilized lone successful constricted areas successful Delhi, and chiefly for customers with a past of aggregate anterior orders.
For pan-India deliveries, the accused predominantly utilized courier/parcel services. In bid to debar detection, a antithetic courier oregon parcel work booking bureau was utilized for each consignment, the NCB said.
The accused accepted payments done cryptocurrencies utilizing unhosted wallets, including Monero and USDT. The proceeds were routed done aggregate intermediary wallets, with conversion charges of up to 10%, to person the funds into USDT, which was past stored successful acold wallets. In definite instances, mule KYC-compliant wallets were besides utilized to way the proceeds into the ceremonial banking system, it said.
The NCB recovered that, to obscure the transaction trail, impermanent unhosted wallets were created dynamically for receiving USDT payments, and the funds received were instantly transferred via aggregate layers of intermediary wallets to beneficiary ones.
“The NCB is continuing the probe to place different associates, hint fiscal transactions, and uncover the planetary proviso concatenation linked to the network,” it added.
In the past, the bureau has conducted respective large operations, including Operation Ketamelon successful 2025 and Operation Zambada successful 2023, against networks linked to planetary darknet markets.
