NCB Brings Drug Kingpin Virender Singh Basoya Back to India from UAE

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday secured the return of alleged drug kingpin Virender Singh Basoya from the United Arab Emirates, taking him into custody after he arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport early in the morning.

Basoya, 50, also known as Viru and a resident of Pillanji village near Sarojini Nagar in south Delhi, had fled India nearly two years ago. He was arrested in the UAE in June following an Interpol Red Notice issued at the request of the NCB. Officials said his return was achieved through sustained coordination between Indian agencies and UAE authorities.

Investigators alleged that Basoya coordinated an international narcotics trafficking network while repeatedly changing locations in Dubai. His name first emerged in February 2024 during an investigation into a Pune-Delhi syndicate, where authorities recovered more than 1,800 kg of mephedrone worth an estimated ₹2,500 crore from Pune and south Delhi's Hauz Khas. Basoya fled the country with his wife shortly after his name surfaced.

He was later identified as the alleged kingpin of a wider trafficking syndicate after the Delhi Police Special Cell seized 1,289 kg of cocaine worth around ₹12,000 crore in October 2024 across Delhi, Hapur, Ghaziabad, and Gujarat. Police reported that the narcotics originated in South America, were routed through Dubai, refined at a factory in Ankaleshwar in Gujarat, and transported by road to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh disguised as pharmaceutical supplies.

In June 2025, Delhi Police filed a 10,000-page chargesheet naming Basoya, his brother Ravinder, his son Rishabh, and 16 others. According to investigators, the family operated shell entities and posed as prosperous landowning zamindars, masking drug proceeds as rental earnings from ancestral properties in Pillanji and assets purchased in Noida.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah welcomed the return, stating that Indian agencies are relentlessly tracking down traffickers hiding overseas and dismantling their networks.