Reel life spawns real life peddler

German hash dealer took a bit role in Dum Maro Dum to learn the tricks of the trade

It was the prospect of glamour, money, and parties that drove Ralph Diersmanna alias Goose (40), a German national, to enter the drug trade in Goa.

Goose, as he was known in drug mafia circles, was hyptonised by Bollywood, so much so that he even bagged a role as an extra in the recently released film Dum Maaro Dum. In fact, it was during the shooting of this film that he picked up the tricks of the trade.

The film revolves around the nexus between policemen and drug peddlers in Goa, and while on the sets, Goose took keen note of the storyline and the research that had gone into the film, with the aim of exploiting the information to his advantage, said a senior official of the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) who arrested Goose and his aide Krishna Singh (26) of West Bengal, and recovered hashish worth Rs 1 crore from the duo.
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"The stash consisted of the finest quality hashish called Malana cream. It is consumed in elite party circles," said a senior NCB official. "A gram of Malana cream costs between Rs 4,000 and 5,000, on the streets of Goa and Mumbai," he added.

Though the role was small, Goose acquired the valuable insight that he could retain a substantial cut, once the consignment was delivered to the 'pushers'. Butu00a0 Goose did not know that the police had tapped several pushers' phones in Mumbai and Goa.

In May, sleuths found out that a large consignment of drugs was on its way to Goa via Maharashtra. They nabbed Goose in a follow-up operation. Investigations revealed that though this was his sixth visit to India, it was the first time he was peddling drugs.

A team of NCB officials, which had been trailing the duo for a week, had been tipped off that Singh was lodged in a hotel in Sawantwadi, Maharashtra.

They nabbed him andu00a0 found out that he was to deliver the drugs to Goose in Macky Market in Goa. Singh is proprietor of a sprawling resort in Himachal Pradesh, while Goose worked as a radio and TV technician in a small German company.
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"The drugs had been stashed in two speaker boxes to avoid detection," said Yashodhan Wanage, zonal director, NCB.

Malana cream or khaki is popular among footloose foreigners visiting Goa and Nepal.