Karachi Additional Inspector General (AIG) Azad Khan shared details on Friday of probe against alleged queenpin Anmol alias Pinky, saying that investigators had come across information regarding the involvement of foreigners in running the drug network.
Anmol had been arrested earlier this week from her apartment in Karachi in a joint raid conducted by police and a civilian intelligence agency in connection with two cases pertaining to the possession of narcotics and an unlicenced weapon.
On Wednesday, a court in Karachi granted police her three-day physical remand.
The Karachi AIG shared details during a press conference on Friday of the investigation conducted against Anmol thus far, saying that the case could turn out to be a transnational one as investigators had come across information about the involvement of foreigners in the drugs networks allegedly run by the suspect.
“We have come across information that some foreigners from African countries are involved in this network who are in Lahore. They may be six to eight in number.
“Similarly, around 20 Lahore-based women are also involved in this network,” he said.
“We have come to know that the main shipment [of drugs] used to come from there. They used to make their products there,” he said, adding that the products were then sent to Karachi.
He added that Anmol used to employ riders, among whom nine had been identified. “Eight of them are Punjab-based, who used to come here, get their job done and leave. Just one of those [nine] riders was from Karachi,” he detailed.
“When her riders began getting caught, she changed her modus operandi. Instead of sending her riders, she began using local riders through various services,” he added.
The AIG said Sindh authorities were in touch with Punjab police and the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Federal Investigation Agency, National Cybercrime Investigation Agency, he added. Moreover, “we are also contacting the Financial Monitoring Unit”.
The official said 20 cases against Anmol had surfaced in Sindh, in which 17 were old cases and three were registered recently. “One of those cases is registered with the ANF.”
Moreover, three cases against her were registered in Lahore, he said, adding that further details about the status of those cases had been sought.
The AIG said Anmol had been shown as arrested in nine cases, and she had been acquitted in six of the old cases registered against her. “She has been declared a proclaimed offender in three cases and an absconder in the ANF case,” he added.
Separately, nine cases registered previously were linked to her network, he said, adding that “her riders are nominated in those cases, but her name was not mentioned in the cases when they were registered”.
AIG Khan said Anmol had been involved in drug peddling since 2014, but she began selling drugs in Karachi in 2018. “She used to do it online and when she came on [the authorities’] radar here, she moved to Lahore,” he added.
The official said a forensic analysis of Anmol’s phone had been conducted and that they had found 869 contacts. “We are trying to determine the location of those contacts. We have received the location of 639 contacts, of which only 132 are in Karachi,” he further stated.
He said this showed that Anmol’s network was not limited to Karachi and its “tentacles are spread beyond” this city.
The AIG said 300 of Anmol contacts identified by investigators were those who were “fully involved in this drug-related” activity. He added that the next task was to categorise those contacts as those of “victims”, who had been addicted to drugs, and the “accused”, who sold the drugs. Another category would be of “harbourers”, who had been facilitating the network through their influence, he said, assuring that whoever they may be, including police personnel, would be taken into custody.
Sharing details financial transactions related to Anmol traced thus far, the AIG Khan said a 500-page statement of a year-and-a-half old account had been acquired. According to that, transactions of more than 30 million had been recorded from that account, he added.
“The biggest transaction has been made by an account under the name of an individual named Anna from Lahore — the amount is around nine million or more,” he said.
The official further told reported that a raid at Anmol’s “old residence was conducted at night, from where cocaine was recovered. We have registered a separate case regarding that”.
More to follow
