Chennai Cartel 2.0: A ring forged in Haryana prison, linked to Manipur meth hub, busted in Chennai

CHENNAI: In its largest haul of methamphetamine in 2024, Chennai police seized drugs worth Rs 17 crore and arrested 10 persons, three of whom are part of the 'Chennai cartel', busted by the Punjab police 10 years ago.

The trio of the Chennai cartel — as dubbed by the Punjab police — and three of their accomplices were behind bars in central prisons in Haryana and Punjab for seven years. All six were found guilty by a court in Haryana which sentenced them to 10 years but got premature release.

Prison time has been no deterrent for the 'Chennai cartel' as they resumed their drug trade with a freakish fervour, a 2.0 version with new friendships made in north Indian prisons and managed to operate for about three years from their home turf, Chennai.

The city police's recently formed Anti Narcotics Intelligence Unit (ANIU), which has been untangling the synthetic drug peddling network in the metropolis, spoilt the party of the 'Chennai cartel' member V Venkatesan, 41, four days before Christmas and seized 1.5 kg of methamphetamine. Along with Venkatesan, police arrested K Karthik (36) of Triplicane.

Venkatesan's arrest ensured there is no Happy New Year for his associates who will now welcome 2025 from Puzhal. Eight others, including Venkatesan's wife, were arrested on Monday and 17.815 kg of meth was seized, the largest by city police in 2024.

"The main suppliers to Venkatesan, who are in Manipur and Chandigarh, are yet to be arrested and teams have been sent to secure them," a senior police officer told DT Next.

The probe revealed that Venkatesan's friendship in Haryana prison with a Chandigarh man and a Manipur resident encouraged him to resume the synthetic drug trade within months of his release in February 2021. They had promised him a steady stream of supply.

Venkatesanalso shifted base from Tiruvottiyur to Roja Nagar in Madhavaram, where he bought an apartment worth Rs 70 lakh and roamed around in two SUVs.

Also Read: DT Explains: Meth, the ice-cold killer narcotic on the prowl in Chennai

"The irony is Venkatesan used to call the police patrol every week to clear the vehicles that crowd outside the sub-registrar office, located on the street, to make way for his car," said a staff at one of the document writing centres.

According to the police, he had a front of real estate and finance business and also ran a travel firm to aid his drug trafficking. "His Manipur contact had promised to send meth and pseudoephedrine in trucks, evading checkposts, and on receiving them via a pointsman near Red Hills toll gate, Venkatesan can pay suppliers in hawala transactions," the officer said.

M Prabhu and RV Shanmugam, Venkatesan's co-accused in the Punjab police case were also arrested. Police said the cartel used the 'Signal' messaging app to communicate with their contacts in Manipur and Chandigarh.

Venkatesan used to supply pseudoephedrine to Shahul Hameed of Mannadi and Lakshmi Narasimhan of Madurai and meth to Diwan Mohammed of Burma Bazaar. When Diwan got arrested by the Muthialpet police two months ago, Venkatesan started supplying to his driver, Karthik, who got arrested along with Venkatesan.

A small lab was set up in Aruppukottai in Virudhunagar district by the co-accused, but the majority supply was from Manipur, police said.

Shahul Hameed and Lakshmi Narasimhan were arrested on Monday along with Lawrence, Sarath Kumar, Murugan and Venkatesan's wife, Jancy Merida for aiding and abetting.

"We have learnt that Venkatesan sent pseudoephedrine to a contact in Australia and are probing," said a senior police officer.

Police have sealed immovable properties worth Rs 5 crore, brought by the accused through the drugs trade and are taking steps to freeze them from the proceeds of crime.

"He (Venkatesan) was looking to set up an office nearby and had asked an elderly man who does freelance document writing work outside the sub-registrar office to sit as an admin. Fortunately for that elderly man, he declined the offer," said a resident of Roja Nagar.

How Chennai cartel, jailed in Punjab for 7 years, kept drug trade on the go

The Chennai cartel members resuming their high-risk, high-return 'business' immediately upon their release from prison despite being behind bars for seven years should not be a surprise, for one of them was into drug trade even while in Punjab and Haryana prisons. Three from the Chennai cartel were part of the 10 arrested by city police on Tuesday when drugs worth Rs 17 crore were seized.

In June 2015, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Chennai arrested a man, Surender from Kodungaiyur in the city and seized 750 grams of methamphetamine, 17 grams of opium and other tablets from his house. The second accused in the case was S Mani, who, by then, was in Patiala Jail for a year.

It was the prosecution's case that the drugs were procured by Surender at Indore and through a contact in Moreh, Manipur on Mani's directions from the Punjab prison. Naturally, Mani's counsel denied the charges saying there was no documentary proof to show Mani used a phone in prison, but DRI produced videos retrieved from Surender's phone which showed Mani's picture from inside the prison with his jailmates sent in June 2015.

In June 2023, a special court in Chennai sentenced Surender and Mani to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment. Chennai police sources said he got a premature release from Haryana prison after the judgment and they are yet to check with the DRI if they have secured him upon release to ensure a prison term in their case.

Mani was the last of the Chennai cartel members to get a favourable judgment for premature release in the Punjab police case. His co-accused in the case, R Shiva Kumar, V Venkatesan, M Prabhu and RV Shanmugam — all from Chennai and a woman, Cer Boih, holding a Myanmar passport were released in February 2021.

They were arrested by the Patiala district police in June 2014 and were first lodged in Central Prison, Patiala. Over the course of the trial, they were shifted to Central Prison, Ambala in Haryana and on September 17, 2019, Additional Sessions Judge, Panchkula found them guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced the five men to 10 years' imprisonment and the woman to eight years' jail.

According to the Punjab police, they illegally purchased intoxicant medicines and substances from medical factories in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, and smuggled them within and outside the country. According to media reports at the time of their arrest, the procured substances were transported by rail to Chennai and then shipped to Myanmar, Malaysia and from there to European countries.

Police recovered 50 kg of pseudoephedrine, 3.5 kg of diphenoxylate and Rs 1.6 crore in cash from the accused. Pseudoephedrine is used in making medication for nasal congestion but can be misused to make methamphetamine, a synthetic drug popular in Southeast Asian countries and Australia.

From the woman's house in Delhi, police seized eight bulk parcels containing 4,98,000 tablets which contain pseudoephedrine and she could not produce any licence or permit to hold such a bulk quantity of tablets.

At the time of the arrest, police had found that they procured the pseudoephedrine from Ashwani Kumar Chabbra of Punjab and sold them to Rehman of Malaysia, but the Punjab police could not secure the duo until the guilty verdict against the Chennai cartel.

While the Chennai cartel members argued that they were falsely implicated by Punjab police and that they were picked up from Delhi after which a false story was fabricated and evidence planted, the court held that their defence was an afterthought.

"Though the five male accused claimed they were doing business in mobile phones and the money which was recovered was for their wholesale business of expensive mobiles and devices, they failed to produce any evidence regarding any VAT, GST, record of their business and such a huge amount of cash cannot be planted," the additional sessions judge, Panchkula noted in his judgment holding them guilty.

As could be seen in the recent arrest by Chennai police, only their business front had changed. In north India, the Chennai cartel members moved around under the pretext of being in the electronics business. On release from prison in 2021, Venkatesan assumed the role of a real estate businessman and a financier and continued with the meth trade.

Chennai police sources said they would be probing the whereabouts of the other convicts who were released in the Punjab police case and find out if they are continuing with the drug trade too.