Tamil Nadu: ED freezes Rs 55.50 crore assets of drug smuggler Sadiq
Chennai: Assets worth Rs 55.50 crore, including seven high-end cars like Jaguar and Mercedes, allegedly acquired through criminal activities by Jaffar Sadiq, who was arrested on charges of smuggling drugs like pseudoephedrine and ketamine, and his associates have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
A press release from ED on Thursday said that 14 immovable properties such as JSM Residency Hotel and a luxurious bungalow were also among the assets provisionally attached by their Chennai unit on September 2.
The action by the ED followed ‘an investigation into Jaffer Sadiq Abdul Rehman, a former DMK functionary and alleged leader of a drug cartel,’ the press release said, adding that the probe was based on investigations by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Customs, which led to searches at 15 locations in the State.
The investigations revealed that Sadiq, in collusion with his brother Mohammed Saleem and others, was closely involved in exporting and concealing pseudoephedrine and other narcotic substances, the release said.
The proceeds of drug smuggling had been channelized and layered through a plethora of firms, entities and companies in which Sadiq had been a director or partner or proprietor along with a few other persons, including his relatives, the release said.
The uncovering of the set up that was used to route the proceeds of crime earned through illicit drug trafficking, the ED had arrested Sadiq on June 26 and his brother Saleem on August 12 on charges of money laundering.
Sadiq and his associates had also laundered the money earned through drug smuggling by investing in legitimate ventures like real estate, film production, hospitality and logistics. The illegally earned money was channeled into these ventures through a network of bank accounts in the name of Sadiq and his family members, the ED said.
The illicit cash was deposited, layered through financiers and recorded as unsecured loans in financial statements, the ED has unearthed. With the laundered money, movable and immovable assets were acquired in the name of Sadiq, his wife Ameena Banu, Mydeen Gani and other benamis like Mohammed Mustafa S and Jamal Mohammed, the ED revealed.
Sadiq, who was arrested in a drug related case by the NCB, was granted bail by a Special NDPS judge in July while he continued to remain in custody in connection with the money laundering case. The ED had interrogated him in the Tihar jail.
Before his expulsion from the DMK, following his arrest in the narcotics case, Sadiq was the Chennai West deputy organizer of the DMK’s NRI wing. He had also produced Tamil films and had built the hotel.
