At a marriage reception in Gurgaon in February 2024, the person commanding essentially the most consideration was not the groom.
Aakash Baisoya, 28, stood on a stage beside his spouse, whereas kin and visitors from Pilanji, a village in South Delhi, gathered beneath the chandeliers. There have been businessmen, political figures and members of an prolonged clan that had lived within the space for generations.
However the banquet corridor saved orbiting round one man. Aakash’s father, Virender Singh Baisoya, referred to as Viru, was 50, tall and imposing. He had flown in from Dubai for his son’s marriage ceremony, and he didn’t intend to remain lengthy.
“After the celebrations, he left the nation once more,” remembers a senior officer with the Particular Cell of Delhi Police.
It might be the final time Delhi police investigators noticed him within the nationwide capital.
Eight months later, Baisoya’s title surfaced in what turned one in all Delhi’s largest narcotics circumstances. Police alleged he was the kingpin of a cocaine community with hyperlinks to South America and Thailand. The Particular Cell seized greater than Rs 7,000 crore price of cocaine from a West Delhi godown — the most important drug haul within the Capital’s historical past.
However the scale of the seizure was solely half of what intrigued Delhi police.
Police mentioned they’d uncovered a complicated, layered community not like these beforehand seen in Delhi, involving pharmaceutical professionals and intermediaries who saved its prime operators out of sight.
For months, Baisoya remained one in all them. “Now we have been ready to arrest and query Baisoya. He remained past our attain,” a senior official mentioned.
Then, final week, that wait seemed to be coming to an finish after Dwelling Minister Amit Shah posted on X. “Creating a brand new milestone within the coverage of zero tolerance towards narcotics, the NCB secured the return of fugitive drug kingpin Virender Singh Basoya from the UAE,” his publish learn.
For the Delhi Cops, who had almost for 2 years been reconstructing what they imagine was an industrial-scale provide chain, the announcement raised a right away query: Would they lastly get the prospect to query the person they think about its most vital lacking hyperlink?
Fourteen individuals have been arrested within the Delhi case. Baisoya shouldn’t be one in all them – no less than, not but. “Now we have arrested the middlemen, staff and handlers. Nevertheless, we nonetheless haven’t questioned essentially the most essential hyperlink – Virender Singh Baisoya,” one other senior police official mentioned.
And that, for Delhi Police, is what makes Baisoya’s return extra consequential than the arrest of simply one other fugitive.
The Village: Pilanji
Pilanji is a village the town has slowly surrounded.
It’s a Gujjar settlement, residence to one of many Nationwide Capital Area’s distinguished land-owning communities. Its lanes stay slender. Cows and buffaloes transfer alongside Royal Enfields and SUVs. On a moist August afternoon, hookahs nonetheless smoulder within the shade of the porches.
This was the place Baisoya grew up. “His household was by no means in need of cash. Land and homes in and round Pilanji introduced in a gentle revenue,” says an eighty-year-old neighbour of the household.
However Baisoya, they are saying, was not content material to dwell on it. “He purchased some land or flats…I don’t precisely keep in mind…round Noida as properly. He received hire from there additionally,” the eighty-year-old says.
His household residence nonetheless stands in Pilanji: a four-storey gray constructing that’s extra polished than most of the homes round it. Lengthy balconies run alongside every flooring, their railings fabricated from glass. On the entrance are tall black iron gates.
The bell goes unanswered.
Family say the home is occupied. “His mom, who’s round 70-years-old, lives right here, alongside together with his spouse, and his brother Ravinder’s household. He additionally did some contractual work. I heard he received a contract to make a hospital in Jammu final yr,” says Ankit, Baisoya’s nephew.
In Pilanji, there isn’t a single account of the person Baisoya was earlier than investigators started describing him as an alleged kingpin. Relying on whom you ask, he was a contractor, a property vendor, and a businessman.
The Delhi Police have one other chronology.
The primary border
In accordance with investigators, Baisoya’s journey into alleged illicit commerce started not with cocaine, however with cigarettes.
Delhi Police say he was allegedly concerned in smuggling imported cigarettes from Dubai into India.
“The Directorate of Income Intelligence (DRI) registered two circumstances towards him, and he was declared a proclaimed offender — that means an accused on the run,” a senior police officer mentioned.
Baisoya had studied via Class 12 and later enrolled in a Delhi College faculty, however didn’t full his research.
“He initially opened a courier firm and later began a handloom enterprise. He additionally ventured into the development enterprise, following which he lived in Jammu for a while. Nevertheless, as a result of losses within the development enterprise, he needed to return to Delhi,” the police officer mentioned.
Later, Baisoya moved to the UK, the place he met Sandeep Dhunay, 42, a British nationwide of Indian origin with roots in Patna. The connection, in line with police, marked a flip.
“The 2 allegedly began trafficking in narcotics,” the police officer mentioned.
For Indian-origin fugitives and smugglers, investigators say, Britain has lengthy provided a beautiful place to settle and function, notably in and round London.
“The nation’s means to supply inventive cash laundering schemes is revered. Indian-origin smugglers like Virender ‘Dave’ Sharma, Akbar Shamji, and even gangster Kapil Sangwan have prospered within the nation,” the senior officer mentioned.
Baisoya’s actions, in the meantime, had been turning into more and more troublesome to observe. Whereas he was in Gurgaon for his son’s marriage ceremony, Pune Metropolis Police obtained a tip {that a} consignment of mephedrone was headed for the town, a senior police officer mentioned.
“Quickly, Baisoya left for the UAE, one other favorite amongst drug traffickers of the best ilk,” the officer mentioned. “Criminals or smugglers like Baisoya, who’re conscious that safety businesses are looking for them, desire to stay underground as soon as they arrive in overseas international locations.”
Again in India, the investigation was starting to accumulate a unique scale.
Pune Police allegedly seized 500 grams of mephedrone throughout an operation in February 2024.
“They discovered Baisoya linked to it. The probe was expanded to hint the broader community, resulting in follow-up recoveries of round 867 kg of mephedrone from Pune and 970 kg from Delhi,” an officer mentioned. The case was subsequently transferred to the NCB’s Mumbai Zonal Unit.
Cocaine involves Delhi
Delhi Police officers mentioned cocaine first surfaced in Delhi round 1996 and gained a wider market within the early 2000s. Foreigners staying in Paharganj motels had been among the many early suppliers, promoting it for Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 a gram.
As demand grew, smugglers from African international locations took over a lot of the commerce, a senior police official mentioned. Couriers, some travelling on medical visas, rented houses in South Delhi neighbourhoods reminiscent of Chhattarpur, the place cocaine was hid, blended and bought via native networks.
Social media later allowed suppliers and handlers to coordinate throughout borders with out assembly in particular person.
“However the commerce remained fragmented. It was by no means industrial scale,” the officer mentioned.
That modified in October 2024.
On October 1, the Particular Cell raided a warehouse in Mahipalpur leased by Tushar Goel, the son of a writer, and seized 562 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana.
9 days later, one other 208 kg of cocaine was recovered from a store in Ramesh Nagar. “After this restoration, the probe revealed that the drug belonged to a Gujarat primarily based firm named Pharma Options Companies,” an officer mentioned.
The path led investigators to Ankleshwar, in Gujarat. There, police recovered one other 518 kg of cocaine, price about Rs 5,000 crore, from a agency within the Ankleshwar GIDC, officers mentioned.
The medicine, investigators mentioned, had travelled a good distance earlier than reaching Gujarat.
“Sourced from Colombia and Peru, the medicine reached Gujarat from Dubai, utilizing a number of sea routes. They had been sorted and blended within the manufacturing unit earlier than being dispatched to Delhi-NCR,” the officer mentioned.
Contained in the Avakar manufacturing unit, police allegedly discovered an industrial-scale operation. “Equipment used to package deal medicines and syrups in bulk was allegedly getting used to combine and pack cocaine,” the official mentioned.
The cocaine didn’t transfer via Delhi in gram-sized packets. “It travelled as cargo belonging to multinational firms as medical consignments. On paper, they had been being transferred to a shell pharma firm,” the official mentioned.
“The faux firm employed staff on the pretext of working for a pharma model – lots of them MBA graduates – and used them to rearrange storage in NCR. The corporate’s title was additionally used to rent automobiles from transporters in Delhi to maneuver the consignment from one godown to a different,” the official mentioned. What investigators encountered in 2024, in different phrases, was not merely a bigger cargo of cocaine. “It was a really completely different operation. Medicine moved throughout continents via reliable companies and individuals who seemed to be peculiar company staff, utilizing common commerce infrastructure to deliver narcotics into Delhi,” the senior police official mentioned.
Delhi Police’s Wait
For greater than two years, Delhi Police had been unable to deliver Baisoya again to India.
However whereas he remained out of attain, investigators say they went after the community round him. By a sequence of arrests, police picked aside what they describe because the cartel’s community of middlemen, staff and handlers. Officers level to seizure information as proof that the crackdown disrupted its operations.
In 2024, authorities seized 1,293.298 kg of cocaine in circumstances registered below the Narcotic Medicine and Psychotropic Substances Act. In 2025, that determine fell to 12.64 kg. Within the first six months of 2026, authorities seized 6.6 kg.
“The numbers clearly present that these arrests have made an influence and the community’s operations have been disrupted,” an officer mentioned.
Baisoya, nevertheless, remained past their attain. Delhi Police first secured a non-bailable warrant towards him and later sought an Interpol Pink Nook Discover. The Particular Cell additionally despatched letters rogatory — formal requests for authorized help — to authorities in Dubai.
Nonetheless, monitoring him proved troublesome.
“He was seen as soon as in Dubai at the moment, after which he simply disappeared,” mentioned a police officer who was a part of the staff that tracked Baisoya. “We had data that he was travelling across the Center East, however till June this yr, we had little or no details about his actions.”
“For the final two years, we wished to arrest him as a result of we wished to curb the sale of cocaine and different high-end medicine in Delhi,” the officer mentioned. “Now, after his arrest, questioning him is vital as a result of he was not merely an peculiar member of the community. He was like the chief head of this cartel.”
“Though his handlers, together with Sandeep Dhunay, had been primarily based in Dubai and Pakistan, Baisoya was their hyperlink to the capital’s market,” the officer mentioned.
His power, investigators imagine, was his connection to Delhi. “His community and social connections within the metropolis had been very sturdy,” the officer mentioned. For Delhi Police, that’s the reason his return issues.
