Staff Reporter
Panaji
Officials from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) have separately interrogated Israeli national Yaniv Benaim alias Atala (50), who was recently arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of Goa Police in a drug-related case.
Sources said both central agencies questioned Atala regarding his possible links to national and international drug networks and individuals involved in the trade.
Meanwhile, a local court has extended Atala’s police custody by two more days. The ANC had arrested
him during a late-night
raid in Siolim on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday last week. Drugs worth approximately Rs 8.70 lakh were seized during the operation.
Interestingly, although Atala has long been labelled a notorious Israeli drug dealer, this is the first time he has been caught in possession of drugs, according to the police. In a separate development, the Anjuna police registered an FIR against him for overstaying in India without valid travel documents, based on a complaint filed by the ANC. His passport was earlier seized by Uttarakhand Police in 2019 in connection with an overstaying case.
The ANC has also written to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to verify the documents Atala used to obtain an Aadhaar card. As per rules, foreign nationals applying for Aadhaar must have stayed in India for at least 182 days in the previous 12 months and must provide a valid passport and visa, among other documents.
Atala’s criminal history in Goa includes his 2010 arrest in a sensational case involving the alleged nexus between drug dealers and the police. The case surfaced after a video uploaded by his girlfriend purportedly showed Atala claiming that the then-ANC chief was regularly selling him drugs seized in raids. This led to the suspension and arrest of seven policemen, and the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). However, the CBI found no evidence to support the police-drug mafia nexus allegations. In 2019, the seven policemen were exonerated after a departmental inquiry failed to prove the charges.
Atala was also arrested in 2019 in connection with an assault case registered by the Anjuna police.
