With Aryan Khan in NCB net, Bollywood back in drug abuse spotlight

On October 3, the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested Shahrukh Khan's elder son, Aryan Khan, for illegal possession of drugs. Disguised as a passenger, NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede led the raid inside Cordelia Cruises' Empress Ship, which was bound from Mumbai to Goa. The raid was launched after the NCB received a tip-off regarding the presence of banned drugs in a rave party that began mid-sea. Eight suspects have been apprehended and are being investigated, one of who is Aryan Khan, who now stands arrested.

As per reports, during the operation, drugs such as MDMA/Ecstasy, Cocaine, MD (Mephedrone) and charas were recovered from the suspects who are Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, Gomit Chopra, Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant. All those under questioning are youngsters from well-off families, and who or whose parents belong to the fields of glamour, fashion and business. The organisers of the party are also being questioned.

The phones of all eight have been seized to investigate their chats for clues regarding their association with drugs. As per reports, the president and CEO of Cordelia Cruises Jurgen Bailom said the narcotics department found drugs in some passengers' luggage who "were then off-loaded immediately and the sailing of the cruise got delayed”. The ship had started off from Mumbai for a three-day musical voyage to Goa when it was intercepted by the NCB. On board, various events were planned with DJs from abroad, including DR Stan Kolev from the US, Raoul K. from Ivory Coast and Kayza from Morocco.

Bollywood has been on the NCB's radar for drug consumption in particular since last year when in the case related to Sushant Singh Rajput's death, actor Rhea Chakraborty spilled the beans on a long list of peers from her fraternity including Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet Singh—both of who are her contemporaries in Bollywood—as having consumed narcotic substances. Ever since then, the NCB has summoned a number of celebrities from the Hindi film industry, including Deepika Padukone, in relation to consumption of drugs.

“But there is nothing surprising about the talk of Bollywood's association with narcotic substances or contraband,” says Vivek Agnihotri, director of Tashkent files. "This is not new. Cocaine is called the champagne of Bollywood parties and glamour is essential for the syndicate to thrive and survive,” Agnihotri said.

He talked about the systematic and organised manner in which the entire operation is carried out. "Right from identifying the newbies or starlets in the industry to introducing them to drugs, an entire (drugs) industry works on how to get newer people in the industry hooked. Influential A-listers are roped in to impress upon younger starlets to take it up and very soon, unknowingly at first, one gets pulled into a syndicate. Within the industry, the network works on commission basis, in a way that the user becomes the dealer or the promoter and pushes others to in turn become members for a certain percentage. There is a reason why some known senior people, no matter how talented they are, do not get work in Bollywood. It is because they refuse to be a part of the group,” claimed Agnihotri. Reportedly, Rhea had told NCB that 80 per cent of Bollywood stars were on drugs.

Mumbai, being the hub of glitz and glamour, has proven to be the perfect canvas where psychedelics, debauchery, sex, money and limelight come together to create an irresistible narrative. "With the glamour industry based here and top-notch industrialists and businessmen, Mumbai boasts of people who have money and desperation, two essentials for a lifetime of drug addiction," comments Yashpal Purohit, an advocate with the Bombay High Court and someone who's prosecuted a number of criminals in drug peddling cases in Mumbai and Pune. Drugs come into Mumbai either via Goa through Mumbai-Pune Expressway, by air essentially from Bangkok and Africa and via ports. "At the Karnataka border, the villagers literally throw the plant and the other guy on this side grabs it. So they don't have to cross the border at all. The Mazgaon Port Trust and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai are the main hubs for the arrival of these containers. Fish containers coming in daily from Alibaug to Mumbai is one of the commonest routes for the movement of narcotics from satellite and periphery towns into Mumbai," informs Purohit.

Known as ‘Mumbai's Singham’, Wankhede has been on an aggressive frontal attack on the organised drug syndicate that has been operating in Mumbai. In an exclusive interview to THE WEEK, he says that in the past one year alone, from September 2020 to September 2021, around 35-40 per cent of those in the 18-25 age group were caught doing drugs. In the same time period, the NCB office, under his leadership, neutralised 12 gangs. "I'm going to go all out on finishing the menace of drugs. Drugs is a general problem and are everywhere… Major age group of 18-23 years… It is very disturbing and traumatising to find youngsters consuming drugs. Lot of women are being caught nowadays especially those with small children. it is painful," he says.

What has been observed is a certain demarcation and distribution of different types of drugs among the youth from different classes. "Those from the underprivileged sections of society are most seen doing cough syrups, codene, introvert, which is very cheap and easily available. Then there are the party-going kids from Mumbai's middle class who are into mephederon, known as the poor man's cocaine… then there are tech-savvy kids, IT graduates from affluent families who trade in bitcoins and dark web, who have loads of money but want anonymity and call for drugs from Amsterdam and Canada. Then there are uber-rich people who prefer cocaine and high-quality weed, who only do it as a result from peer pressure, for prestige and for validation. For kids from very rich backgrounds, it is peer pressure in 99 per cent cases that leads them to do drugs, especially cocaine/Charlie simply to appear cool to their peers and contemporaries and to be accepted in that coterie. These are highly educated children who feel left out if they do not do drugs. Even in Bollywood, the notion that only strugglers are into it is a misnomer. It happens at the highest levels wherein doing drugs becomes a pass to enter elite clubs, as a statement of power. Else, they feel they are no less than a middle class guy."

There has now been a change in the NCB's strategy and an offensive approach: "The focus earlier was to catch big drug cases in India and now we have changed the strategy,” says Wankhede. "We are now approaching both the demand as well as the supply side with a consolidated approach with a check on all levels of the chain—consumer, supplier, peddler, manufacturer. We will now file cases of 100 kilos heroin, 60gm of Mephedrone and someone possessing 6gm will also be convicted. Consumption is a very big problem for us in Mumbai and Goa and nobody will be spared. Whoever is violating the NDPS Act will be prosecuted,” Wankhede said.

The organised crime is such that it operates on the need-to-know basis. At every level, the peddler, supplier or the manufacturer knows only one person above him and nobody knows the other people in the chain. At any given point in time, there are at least 20 to 30 people involved in just one drug transaction to a single customer. And the entire chain can move from remotest slums of, say, Mira Road or Nalasopara, to across India and from there to Nigeria, Dubai and Amsterdam where the handlers are in real-time conversation with the consumers back in Mumbai. "In September 2020, there were only 30 cases related to drug abuse, but in one year since, close to 120 people have been arrested so far in drug-related cases in Mumbai and Goa and this has been a breakthrough year in that regard,” noted Wankhede.

Wankhede has a core team, which has been a pro in conducting raids, almost all of which have been successful so far, including the Project Apocalypse in which his officers camouflaged themselves, lay in jungle swamps for close to six hours late at night to nab armed Nigerians peddling drugs in a far-off green patch in Mumbai's Aarey. "My guys, who are 10-12 people from the paramilitary force, are lean machines. They are pros in dodging stone pelting and gunshots by the armed Nigerians and successfully nabbing them by the collar and at the same time we are also good with disguising ourselves to launch a raid," says Wankhede. That's exactly what they did in the Cordelia Empress ship on Saturday.