Sandalwood drug case: Techie-turned drug peddler held

Bengaluru: The Central Crime Bureau (CCB)of the Bengaluru Police on Friday arrested an alleged habitual drug peddler, Prateek Shetty, in connection with the high profile case related to procuring and selling banned drugs during high-end parties in the city allegedly involving Sandalwood celebrities.

In a media statement, Joint Police Commissioner (Crime), Bengaluru City Police, Sandeep Patil said, "The CCB police has arrested drug peddler Prateek Shetty in the early hours of Friday."

Speaking to IANS, a senior investigation officer disclosed that the CCB was probing into dark web angle too. "Most of these psychotropic drugs or hallucination drugs like Ecstasy Tablets or LSD strips are generally procured through the dark web."

According to the police, Shetty aged about 30 years and originally from Mangaluru is a trained software engineer who took drugs during his early days of college. "Once he came to Bengaluru and was employed in an IT firm, his addiction led him to become a peddler in the initial days. Due to his addiction, he lost his job and now he is a full-time drug procurer and supplier of drugs to high-end parties," the police officer explained.

The police pointed out that the CCB had arrested Shetty once, as he was one among three drug suppliers from whom the CCB had recovered a major drug consignment of 1.5 kg of cocaine and 1930 Ecstasy tablets worth Rs 1.48 crore in 2018, in Banaswadi police station limits.

The police further added that Shetty is a known drug peddler since 2010 onwards, and 2015 onwards he has become part of a full-fledged drug supply chain in the city, which thrives on high-end parties. He has well-established connections among the drug suppliers operating from Nigeria, Africa and Latin America.