Santosh Shetty runs Rs500 crore drug racket: Cops

Santosh Shetty is no ordinary gangster; he lords over a multi-crore drug empire in South-east Asia.

The crime branch of the Mumbai Police had arrested Shetty in August, following his deportation from Bangkok, and had booked him for murder, extortion and kidnapping.

But investigations into his background revealed that Shetty had built one of the biggest and deadly drug empires in the region over the past 10 years. He controlled the operations from Thailand and his major markets were China and Singapore.

A rough estimate pegs the worth of his business at Rs500 crore, an investigating officer said.

Shetty landed in an Indian jail because of business rivalry, a source close to the Shetty gang said. The Chinese and the Italian drug mafia got Shetty detained in Bangkok.

“His rivals bribed the authorities in Bangkok and ensured that Shetty was deported to India," he said. The action was surprising because Shetty had considerable influence over the police in Thailand, the source said. "It is a coup of sorts that his rivals managed to get him detained by the police there."

The officer, however, was reluctant to go into specifics about the arrest. He said Shetty built his drug empire after fleeing the country in 2000 and settling in Bangkok.

Shetty belonged to the Chhota Rajan gang but he made his presence felt in the underworld after he and Bharat Nepali successfully plotted the escape of Rajan from Bangkok.

When Rajan was in hospital, recovering from gunshot wounds (Chhota Shakeel gang members had shot him), Shetty and Nepali barged into his room and carried him down four floors on their shoulders. Later, they took him to Cambodia, the source said.

Once Rajan was out of danger, Shetty returned to Bangkok and started dealing in drugs. A retired crime branch officer, who had investigated drug cases in the late 1980s, said Shetty peddled drugs in Mumbai between the 1980s and early 1990s. "He used his city network to set up a base in Thailand," he said.     

Shetty captured the drug market in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Macau and other parts of South-east Asia over a couple of years. "After splitting from Rajan in 2007, Shetty started a full-fledged drug business," the source said. "In just four years, he spread his business to several countries."

Rajesh Shrivastava, Shetty's advocate, said on Monday he was worried for Shetty's life because the police had shifted him from Thane jail to Arthur Road jail.

"They did not give any reason for the shifting," he said. "I have moved an application in court so that he is transferred back to the Thane jail. The hearing is on November 2."