Over a year after cocaine and Thai marijuana worth Rs 13,000 crore was seized while being smuggled into Delhi by a Dubai-based cartel, the Delhi Police Special Cell has nabbed one of the suppliers from the UAE.An officer said that the man behind the cartel’s operations in India and Thailand has been identified as Ritik Bajaj. On October 9, a red corner notice was issued against Ritik by the Interpol on the CBI’s request. Ritik had been operating the gang’s Thailand ‘branch’ for over a decade, and was one of the most trusted suppliers of Virender Basoiya aka Veeru, a Dubai-based businessman allegedly funding the cartel’s operation.“Ritik was running a Thai marijuana supply chain from Thailand, and would regularly send consignments to Virender’s cartel boys in India. Ritik had sent drugs weighing 40 kg for distribution in multiple Indian cities last year,” a senior police officer said.“CBI coordinated with NCB Bangkok and got information about travel movement of the subject (Ritik) towards UAE. Thereafter, CBI coordinated with NCB Abu Dhabi to locate the subject. A team of Delhi Police visited UAE to bring back the subject and arrived in India with the subject from UAE on 23.12.2025, at New Delhi,” a statement by the CBI said.Must Read | What is data exclusivity, and how government push may hit availability of cheap, generic drugsRitik (36) was declared a ‘proclaimed offender’ along with Virender; his younger son Rishab Basoiya (25); Pramod (50); and Vikas Rane (49) in May.Rishab, police said, was overseeing coordination among Tushar Goyal, another accused, Jassi and their Mumbai customers. “Vikas Rane, a customer from Mumbai, was set to arrive in Delhi to receive the Thai marijuana from Tushar and take it back to the city to distribute at rave parties. Pramod, an important henchman of Virender, was overseeing the financial transactions,” an officer said.Multiple pharmaceutical companies based in South India and Gujarat — including five legitimate and three shell firms — were allegedly used to transport 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic Thai marijuana that was smuggled in by the cartel into the national capital in October last year. On October 1, 562 kg of cocaine was seized in South Delhi’s Mahipalpur, and Goyal, along with three others, was arrested.Story continues below this adOn October 10, 208 kg of cocaine was seized from a shop in West Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar. The third seizure was made on October 13, when Special Cell sleuths and the Gujarat Police recovered 518 kg of cocaine, valued at Rs 5,000 crore in the international market, during a raid at a firm, Aavkar Drugs, in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar.Previous arrestsFive people were arrested, including three of the company’s listed directors – Ashwin Keshubhai Ramani, Brijesh Kothia, and Vijay Keshavlal Bhesania. The other two men arrested were Mayur, an employee of a fake company, Pharma Solutions Services, and middleman Amit Masuria who allegedly aided the meeting between representatives of the two firms.Aavkar Drugs, which claims to manufacture chemical products on its website, was roped in on September 23, 2016.Police said the seized drugs were all part of a consignment that the cartel operated by Virender allegedly smuggled in. “The drugs arrived at multiple locations in India from South America via Dubai. They were to arrive at Aavkar Drugs in multiple consignments by road to be refined and processed,” an officer said.Story continues below this adThese drugs were then moved out of Gujarat as medical consignments and then were handed over, on paper, to Pharma Solutions Services, police said. “Those were transported as medicine packages of Pharma Solutions Services again via road to Delhi-NCR,” the officer said.“The communication channels between Aavkar Drugs and the Dubai cartel are being investigated,” the officer said.A chargesheet of over 10,000 pages was filed by the Delhi Police in the Patiala House court that named 19 people allegedly linked to the cartel. Of them, 17 were arrested and five were declared ‘proclaimed offenders’.