In a major crackdown against international drug cartels, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday arrested three people including 2 Russian nationals. The action to bust an international drug cartel in Goa was conducted by the NCB Goa unit and under this action 1980 Olympic Silver medalist swimmer of Russia was also arrested. Notably, apart from a Russian Olympic medalist, a former Russian cop, and an Indian were also arrested and different kinds of drugs were seized from their possessions. As per NBC, they acted upon a tip-off that a Russian drug cartel is operating in Arambol and its nearby areas in Goa. As a result, the NCB busted the Russian drug cartel operation in Goa and many types of contraband were also seized. Now, the question arises who is the Russian Olympic medalist who has been arrested by the NCB? To know the answer continue reading-
Who is S Varganova?
As per a newswire, the NCB informed that they have arrested S Varganova. As per reports, S Varganova also known as Svetlana Varganova is a former swimmer from Russia who competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics. Not only this, but S Varganova had also won a silver in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:29.61 during the 1980 Summer Olympics for Russia. As per the information available, she was born on 19 November 1964.
More about NCB Russian cartel drug bust
As per the NCB, after they got the tip-off about the Russian drug cartel they started investing and during the investigation, they found out about the local named Akash who was part of a much larger network. During the probe, it was found that Akash was working for the kingpin of the cartel, a Russian person. As a result, the NCB put Akash under surveillance. After few days based on pinpoint intelligence, a Russian national named Andre was arrested and 20 LSD blots were seized from him. Interestingly, during the interrogation, Andre revealed that he was growing hydroponic weed at his local residence. For the unversed, Hydroponic weed, meaning “working with water” in Latin, is the name for cannabis that's grown using a water-focused system. After his revelations, tree pots of Hydroponic weed were recovered from his house.
The list of seized items in the Russian cartel drug bust in Goa included- 88 LSD blots, 8.8 grams cocaine, 242.5 grams charas, 1.440 kg hydroponic weed, 16.49 grams hash oil, and 410 grams hash cake. Rs 4.88 lakh cash were also seized including Indian and foreign currencies, fake documents, IDs and material required to grow hydroponic weed.
NCB-Goa has neutralized an international multi drug cartel which spanned over two weeks wherein 3 including 2 Russians were arrested with multipled drugs along with Indian & foreign currencies, fake documents, IDs and material required to grow Hydroponic weed. pic.twitter.com/aiwVoV79DJ
— Vibha Verma (@verma_vibha) April 29, 2023