Who is Virender Singh Basoya? NCB brings drug network kingpin back from UAE; Amit Shah hails crackdown

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) recently secured the return of Virender Singh Basoya, a fugitive drug kingpin from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), marking a major crackdown on a narcotics trafficking network.

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the development on Friday. In a post on X, Shah termed it a new milestone in the Central government’s zero-tolerance policy against narcotics. He wrote, “Modi govt is relentlessly tracking down drug traffickers hiding abroad and destroying their entire ecosystem with a ruthless approach.”

He added, “Creating a new milestone in the policy of zero tolerance against narcotics, the NCB secured the return of fugitive drug kingpin Virender Singh Basoya from the UAE. By tracing the criminal through a top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top approach, our agencies have once again proven that no matter where drug traffickers hide, they cannot escape the long arm of Indian law.”

Shah lauded the efforts of the anti-drug trafficking agency, saying the latest action once again demonstrated that drug traffickers cannot evade Indian law enforcement, regardless of where they try to hide.

India to end drug trade in three years? Here’s what Amit Shah said

Earlier in June this year, HM Shah unveiled the Central government’s Vision Document on Drug Control (2026-2029), along with the NCB’s 2025 annual report. The documents were released as part of a three-year national strategy to dismantle drug trafficking networks, Hindustan Times reported.

Shah said the Centre would target the narcotics ecosystem with such force that “it will not be able to recover for decades.”

The plan brings together more than 40 ministries and departments and focuses on combating the narcotics ecosystem through coordinated efforts involving enforcement, intelligence, prevention and rehabilitation.

He also said the government was examining loopholes in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and reviewing the classification of precursor chemicals and psychotropic substances used in the manufacture of drugs.

NCB busts interstate drug trafficking network

Basoya’s deportation comes a day after the NCB’s Mumbai unit busted an interstate drug trafficking network, arrested two people and seized 1.060 kg of charas (cannabis), along with large consignments of prescription opioids, in back-to-back operations, ANI reported.

In the first operation, the NCB’s Mumbai unit intercepted an interstate passenger bus travelling from Gujarat to Mumbai on 8 August and arrested a man identified as N Shaikh. Officials recovered 1,080 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup (CBCS), weighing 108 kg, from his possession. The investigation found that the drugs were being transported through interstate passenger buses to avoid detection and were intended for retail distribution in Mumbai, Bhiwandi and nearby areas.

NCB’s previous deportation of drug kingpin

Widening its crackdown, the NCB secured the deportation of notorious global drug kingpin Mohammad Salim Dola, 59, from Turkiye in April this year under ‘Operation Global-Hunt’. Dola’s deportation marked a massive breakthrough in the dismantling of transnational narcotics syndicates linked to fugitive criminals. Dola, who had links with the Dawood Ibrahim syndicate, was detained by Turkish agencies in Beylikduzu and deported to India on April 28, 2026. The NCB took him into custody upon his arrival at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.