senior police inspector Ashish Shirodkar, head constable Hussein Shaikh and four police constables Saish Pokle, Sanjay Parab, Sandip Parab

senior police inspector Ashish Shirodkar, head constable Hussein Shaikh and four police constables Saish Pokle, Sanjay Parab, Sandip Parab and Ramchandra Kankonkar -- were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act after they were found having links with Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala. Deputy Inspector General of Police R.S. Yadav told IANS: 'In all, six people have been arrested under the PCA and the NDPS Act by the Crime Branch for their links to Atala.' He said all the six policemen were earlier attached to the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC), a police unit tasked to counter drug trade. Shirodkar was named by Atala, in a spy cam video, as the officer who used to sell drugs seized by the ANC back to the drug peddlers. He has also been accused of accepting a bribe of Rs.1 lakh to release a drug peddler. Atala's video surfaced on YouTube earlier this month. In it, he speaks to an unidentified person about policemen linked to the narcotics mafia in Goa. The Goa police's Crime Branch, whose role in investigating links of senior police officials with the narcotics mafia came for criticism by the opposition, had told a local court Wednesday that seized drugs worth crores of rupees lying in the police godown could have been secretly sold by police personnel to the narcotics mafia over the years. 'Since 2000, the drugs destruction committee has never carried out any destruction of drugs,' Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chandrakant Salgaonkar told the additional sessions court in a written statement.

'If any of the drugs from the godown are found to be missing, the same should be recovered from Ashish Shirodkar,' he added.

Ex-detective Michael Daly,jailed over £200m cocaine plot

Ex-detective Michael Daly,jailed over £200m cocaine plotA former London detective who was "pivotal" to the success of a £200 million cocaine-smuggling plot has been jailed for 22 years.Michael Daly, already serving eight years behind bars for a similar conspiracy, was "driven by greed", police said.Judge Henry Blacksell QC sentenced Daly when he appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court in London. Daly's co-conspirator, former firefighter Alan Wells, was jailed for 14 years.Daly used skills and knowledge gained as a Metropolitan Police drug squad detective to try to smuggle 62 bales - more than 1,500kg (3,300lb) - of cocaine into southern Ireland. But Daly and the gang were foiled when their boat ran out of fuel in rough seas and was shipwrecked off the Irish coast on July 2 2007.Daly, 49, is behind bars over another failed drug smuggling operation, and former firefighter Wells, 57, of Blenheim Road, Sidcup, south east London, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine.Daly was pivotal to the plot's success and was due to share in the huge profits, police said. He was in overall charge of the logistics and also possessed local knowledge to plan the operation as his family lived on the south coast of Ireland.Wells admitted being paid £100,000 for his role in helping Daly to organise the logistics.Detective Inspector Grant Johnson, from the Met's Serious and Organised Crime Command, said: "Driven by greed, their activities would no doubt have netted them large sums of money had it not been for law enforcement agencies, particularly our Irish colleagues, working in partnership to identify and convict those concerned.
"Daly, one of the key ringleaders, was an ex-Met detective, who, once leaving the service, clearly abused the knowledge and skills he gained as a police officer for criminal gain."We hope this shows that, no matter who you are, or what job you do, if you commit the crime, the consequences will follow."