The Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested four men, including an Afghan national, and recovered a record 354 kilograms of heroin worth over Rs 2,500 crore in the international market from them, officials said on Saturday.

The accused have been identified as Rizwan Kashmiri, a resident of Ghitorni here and native of Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, Gurpreet Singh and Gurjot Singh, both residents of Jalandhar in Punjab and Hazrat Ali, a native of Kandahar in Afghanistan, they said.

It recently came to the notice of the police that Kashmiri was involved in drug peddling in Delhi and other states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

"On Monday, police received information that Kashmiri was going to deliver contraband in south Delhi's Ghitorni area. A trap was laid and the accused was arrested when he was going to deliver a packet of one kilogram of heroin," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah said.

“Kashmiri revealed that he works under an Afghan national named Isha Khan who recently left India and went to Afghanistan. Khan directed him to contact Gurpreet and Gurjot who were currently operating a drug racket from Faridabad in Haryana,” the DCP said.

“Based on the disclosure of Kashmiri, Gurpreet and Gurjot were arrested,” he said.

“Police recovered 166 kg and 115 kg of heroin from two cars which were parked in a society based on the duo's information. Later, 70 kg heroin was also recovered from the rented accommodation of both the accused,” police said.

According to police Gurpreet and Gurjot revealed that they were operating the drug racket on the instructions of a man named Navpreet Singh, presently based in Portugal.

Gurpreet met Navpreet in Punjab's Kapurthala Jail when they were in judicial custody in separate cases, the DCP said.

Based on the disclosure of Kashmiri, Ali was also arrested from Gurgaon and two kg heroin was recovered from his possession. Around 100 kg of different chemicals used in the preparation of heroin was also recovered, Kushwah said.

Elaborating about the operation, the police said opium grown in various parts of Afghanistan is concealed in different legitimate exports -- talc stone, gypsum powder, basil seeds and in packaging material like gunny bags, cartons etc.

It is then transported in containers to Chabahar Port in Iran from where the consignments are shipped to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, they said.

“Thereafter, the material is separated from the legitimate exports and sent to makeshift factories based in Shiv Puri in Madhya Pradesh for further extraction and processing to get the final product, police said.

The locals with the help of Afghan experts process the heroin and the chemicals required for the process are procured from various shops located in MP and Delhi,” police said.

“After preparation, the heroin is then delivered to Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan J-K and various other parts of the country using different supply chains. The arrested accused are parts of different components of this network,” police said.

According to then, in 2019, the Special Cell had seized 330 kg of such heroin in a multi-state operation.