New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS): A 19-year-old kingpin of a narco syndicate, was arrested along with four others for supplying drugs in the national capital and its peripheries, a Delhi Police official said on Friday, adding that the chain of the syndicate ran from Delhi to Odisha.

The gang leader was identified as Harsh Vardhan, a resident of Gopalpur, Delhi, and his associates Ramesh Kumar Sharma a.k.a Sonu (45), a resident of Tilak Nagar, Amit Kumar Tiwari a.k.a Jam (29), a resident of Raghubir Nagar, and Arul Pandian (25), Jal Vihar, Lajpat Nagar while the source of cannabis was identified as Bishwajeet Mahapatra alias DJ (23), a resident of district Nayagarh, Odisha.

The Special Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Singh Yadav said that a specific input was received that a member of the drug syndicate would come to deliver a huge consignment of high quality of cannabis from Odisha to Delhi in the area of Gandhi Vihar.

A trap was laid and Vardhan was apprehended along with the 22.786 kgs of cannabis.

On interrogation, it is revealed that Vardhan has recently raised a network of drug supply in the area of Delhi-NCR to earn easy money.

“He makes his customers in different parts of Delhi who can purchase cannabis from him on a regular basis. To expand the illegal business, he visited Odisha to check the source and supply of cannabis. Thereafter, he started visiting Bhuvneshwar, Odisha regularly (twice or thrice in a month) for purchasing cannabis and has been supplying the same in Delhi since the last 5-6 months,” said Yadav.

On Vardhan’s instance, Mahapatra was arrested and subsequently, Sharma, Tiwari and Pandian were also arrested.