Tattoo artists-turned drug peddlers who aspired to be ‘Pablo Escobar of city’

CCB are now probing the source and the network through the diary they have recovered from Sigil

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: The Anti-Narcotic wing of the CCB seized drugs worth Rs 25 lakh from the residence of the arrested drug peddlers in the city on Saturday. The cops also recovered a diary and a portrait of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar from the flat, sources from the police said.

Dubbed as ‘the king of cocaine,’ Pablo Escobar was a Columbian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was said to be the founder and sole leader of the Medellin Cartel (Columbian drug cartel). Recently, City Crime Branch personnel arrested two Kerala-based tattoo artists for allegedly involving themselves in drug peddling and seized drugs worth Rs 5 lakh from them.

As the cops suspected a larger racket, they intensified the probe and transferred the case to the narcotics squad for further investigation. After a fortnight of the arrest, the personnel received a hint from the accused Sigil Varghese Mamparampil and Vishnu Priya, that the duo had hidden more drugs at the flat they had been residing at the time of their arrest here.

Raiding the flat near Chandapura, the cops seized drugs worth Rs 25 lakh which included 100 grams of MDMA crystals, 150 LSD strips and 25 ecstasy pills. Speaking to News Trail, sources from the Hulimavu police station said that the accused were in a live-in relationship.

Setting up their business in the city as tattoo artists, the duo had entered into drug peddling through the dark web and it is being suspected that the duo were recieving directions from a larger drug network in Columbia. Further investigation is underway