PROPERTY WORTH RS 4 CRORE SEIZED BY NARCOTICS DIVISION

THE DELHI zonal unit of Narcotics Control Bureau has confiscated
property worth over Rs 4 crore belonging to Abu Ala. This is the first
time that the Delhi unit has confiscated the property of a narcotics
dealer.

Ala, one of the biggest narcotics dealers to have been arrested ran a
heroin producing unit from the heart of the Capital. He exported the
contraband to the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka.
He was arrested by the NCB in November 1999.

Over 50 Kilograms of high-grade heroin and 56 litres of Acetic
Anhydride, a chemical used to produce heroin from Opium, was seized
from Bangalore and Delhi. The contraband was being sent to Sri Lanka
through Tuticorin port as part of a well laid out network. Two persons
suspected to be couriers of the LTTE were also arrested from the
Tuticorin port by the NCB. A well equipped heroin processing unit was
also unearthed in the heart of the Capital for the first time.

Senior NCB officer investigating the case said the decision to
confiscate the property was taken keeping in mind his links with the
LTTE and the enormous operation that he was running. Ala was running
the heroin producing unit in the Capital for the last 15 years,
investigations have revealed. Officers said that he was in touch with
the LTTE for more than three years.

The seized property includes a palatial bungalow in Defence Colony in
South Delhi, the heroin producing unit in Teliwara in Central Delhi, a
medical shop in Bhagirath Place in central Delhi, a three bedroom flat
in Bangalore, three cars, five bank accounts containing Rs 14 lakh.

Though Ala was given one month time to represent his case against the
confiscation before the Finance Ministry, Ala chose not to contest the
confiscation. Ala was booked under the Narcotics Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances