Noida: Five men behind an organised racket that stole and resold goods from e-commerce platforms, including Amazon and Flipkart, were arrested on Saturday, with cops recovering a large stock of stolen goods ranging from protein supplements to baby wipes and shoes to electronic gadgets, worth nearly Rs 75 lakh, from a godown at TP Nagar in Sector 69.Police said the accused worked in cahoots with delivery executives, who would allegedly swap consignments for cheaper goods or empty packages while transporting orders from company hubs. The accused bought these stolen products and sold them on to customers.The racket, active for three to four months, came to light after e-commerce companies flagged a pattern of missing and tampered consignments across multiple complaints following internal audits.DCP Saad Miya Khan said Wasid Khan, a resident of Khoda Colony in Ghaziabad, ran the racket with four accomplices — Sunil Kumar and Dharmendra of Bulandshahr, Vijay Singh of Kasganj, and Raghuraj Singh of Palwal in Haryana — out of Noida and Khoda areas. Cops are on the lookout for two other members of the gang, Aslam and Bhupendra.“The network also includes some delivery executives associated with e-commerce firms, who allegedly collected parcels from company hubs for the gang, removed expensive products while en route to customers, and replaced them with low-value items or empty packets. The tampered parcels were then delivered to customers,” DCP said.The stolen goods were allegedly passed on to Wasid Khan, who used informal channels to sell them at discounted rates, police said.Among the products seized from the godown are 39 large protein supplement containers, 15 whey protein tubs, 165 packets of baby wipes, 18 pairs of shoes, 14 hearing aids, three blood sugar testing devices, four blood pressure monitors, one Protinex container, a sack of assorted Amazon and Flipkart products, 50 cartons of clothing, and a large quantity of empty Amazon and Flipkart packaging material. Police said both genuine and counterfeit items were found in the haul, and forensic verification was underway to establish authenticity.“During interrogation, the accused allegedly admitted that each gang member had a clearly defined role, ranging from collecting stolen goods and purchasing them from delivery personnel to storing and reselling them. We are now trying to identify the delivery executives involved and assess the total financial loss suffered by customers and e-commerce firms,” Khan said. Police are also examining the buyers of the stolen goods to determine whether a wider distribution network exists.Additional DCP Manisha Singh said most of the accused had studied only up to Class 10 or 12. An FIR was registered at Sector 20 police station under BNS sections 318(4) (cheating involving delivery of property), 314 (criminal breach of trust), 316(3) and 316(4) (offences related to criminal breach of trust involving carriers, warehouse keepers or persons entrusted with property), 320 (dishonestly receiving or retaining stolen property), 303(2) (theft), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy or acts committed in furtherance of a common intention).
