Jammu and Kashmir: ED makes third arrest in money laundering case linked to narco-terrorism

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate said on Tuesday that it has made a fresh arrest in an alleged narco-terrorism-linked money laundering case related to the "funding" of banned terrorist group Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen.

Laddi Ram was taken into custody on Monday and was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Jammu that sent him to ED custody for four days, the agency said in a statement.

Two others -- Arshad Ahmed Allaie and Fayaz Ahmed Dar -- were arrested by the federal agency in this case earlier.

The money laundering case stems from a 2019 FIR and a charge sheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police against the accused on the charge of "operating a narco-terrorism module leading to seizure and identification of drugs and illicit cash".

"A network of collusion with drug smuggling and terrorism was unearthed as part of this investigation. Laddi Ram, as the instrumental person in the narco-terror linkage, received cross-border smuggled drugs from Arshad Ahmed Allaie, and distributed and sold those in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir," the ED said.

Ram remitted the proceeds of crime in the form of illicit funds via bank transactions to Arshad Ahmed Allaie, it said.

The federal probe agency claimed that Allaie routed the funds into the hands of terrorists linked to Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen for the "sole purpose of subversive activities." The transaction profiling of the bank accounts found "huge cash deposits obtained via drug sales, routed through multiple suspected inter-connected transactions, disguising the actual source and nature of funds," the ED added.