Karachi doctors, bankers and students among victims of online drug-dealers

Rahim alias Mama and Muhammad Ibrahim, arrested on March 24 on suspicion of supplying drugs, in police custody.

KARACHI: Karchi police arrested two important drug dealers who were supplying cocaine, charas and methamphetamine — commonly known as crystal meth or sheesha — to an online gang which would deliver to a variety of clients, including teenage girls.
SHO Aurangzeb Khattak of Darakhshan police station in Karachi told Arab News that these important arrests were made when police rounded up a dealer named Rahim alia Mama and his accomplice Mohammed Ibrahim in Phase 5 of the DHA area. “We have recovered 5kg of charas and a large quantity of crystal meth,” he said.
The arrested men told police that a gang of seven people was involved in bringing "ice" and charas from Peshawar and Quetta.
“These are dealers and then there is the list of online suppliers,” Khattak said. He added that nine of them had been arrested, who made startling revelations.
Arab News obtained exclusively the interrogation report with the arrested dealers and their victims, which reveals a grim situation in the seaside metropolis.
Officials claimed to have arrested nine and spotted the remaining members of the 37-strong gang but also admitted that online drug peddlers were growing in number, for a particular reason.
“This online sale seems relentless as it’s a chain in which every seller is a consumer too,” said Khattak.
The police official said these narcotics are marketed through social media sites as well as at social and musical gatherings and dance parties and from houses in Karachi. “The product is also introduced to potential clients at wedding ceremonies,” he said.
“Most of the business communication with clients is made through WhatsApp and Facebook messages,” said Khattak, who has interrogated nine people arrested by police over the past couple of months.
“The gang comprises 37 persons, nine of whom have been arrested and the rest will be apprehended soon,” the determined  official said.
Khattak said that since the crystal meth has no smell, there are possibilities that it may be delivered through different courier services as well. However,police are still investigating this angle, he said. 
“Among cocaine, charas and crystal meth, demand for the latter is increasing because of the hike in the price of cocaine, which is sold locally at $100 per gram. The crystal meth can be obtained at $20, making it popular among the city’s youth,” Khattak said.
The interrogation report reveals that a lady doctor named M. Ali, a banker named Y and teenage girls are among the victims of gangs, which sell these drugs through social networking websites in upmarket areas of the city.
“Although most of the clients are students, especially girls, the clients also include grown-up professionals. A female doctor, who practices medicine but is a drug addict, buys crystal meth through her husband, who picks up the drug for her from gang members,” the interrogation document seen by Arab News says.
The clients also include two Quetta residents who come to Karachi and use the drugs during their stay in a guest house.
The purpose of coming to Karachi, however, doesn’t seem to be to obtain the drug as they can easily get it in Quetta, police say.
An owner of car showrooms and a girl working in a shopping mall in an upmarket area of Clifton are also among the buyers, an arrested man told police investigators, adding that those involved in the drugs business mostly belong to Defense Housing Authority areas Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Gulshan-e-Iqbal. However, one member also comes from the rough, lower-middle-class, Lyari area.
Another female, S.Z., who is an Iranian Baloch, told interrogators she would sell drugs in partnership with her husband.
Another girl, M.I., who was working in an office in the smart PECHS area of Karachi, says she would sell charas and crystal meth to residents of the Defense Housing Authority area.
S.A. is a divorced mother of two who remarried but also befriended two more men, who made her a drug addict and partnered in selling the substances to others. She told interrogators that she enjoyed access to various schools and universities in the upmarket vicinity, where she would visit on different pretexts and sell drugs to students.
According to reports, on March 15 the police arrested an American male college graduate involved in selling methamphetamine in the city.
SSP South Sarfaraz Nawaz told media that the accused M.A., alias Vicky, did his Masters from the University of Carolina and belonged to a family still living in the US. According to the police official, M.A. had become addicted to drugs in jail.
Earlier, On Feb. 14, police had arrested three people, including a woman, for delivering drugs to houses and educational institutes in the city. Last year, on Sept. 18, police claimed to have busted a gang operating on social media to sell their drugs to youth in Karachi.
Although the police are working systemically to arrest all people involved in the online drug business they also admit the menace is growing.
“When we make arrests, it impacts the sale; we can arrest, recover the drugs and send them to jail,” said Nawaz.
But this has not yet stopped the online activities.