The Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) of Mumbai Police has busted a mephedrone manufacturing unit in Gujarat and seized drugs worth Rs 1,026 crore, an official said here on Tuesday. The owner of the unit, who holds a master’s degree in chemistry, was also arrested, he said. It was one of the biggest drug seizures by the city police in recent times, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (ANC) Datta Nalawade.
Acting on a tip-off, the ANC’s Worli branch raided a manufacturing unit at Ankleshwar in Gujarat on August 13 and nabbed its owner Giriraj Dixit while seizing 513 kg of mephedrone, he said.
Dixit holds an M.Sc (Master of Science) in chemistry, the official said. On August 3, the ANC had seized more than 700 kilograms of mephedrone, a banned synthetic drug, worth Rs 1,400 crore in a raid at a manufacturing unit at Nalasopara in Palghar district near Mumbai. Shamshullah Obhedullah Khan (38), Ayub Izhar Ahmed Sheikh (33), Reshma Sanjaykumar Chandan (49), Riyaz Abdul Sattar Menon (43), Prem Prakash Parasnath Singh (52) and Kiran Pawar were arrested during the raid, the official said. Following their interrogation, the ANC zeroed in on Dixit, Nalawade added.
The mephedrone manufactured in Dixit’s factory was meant to be supplied to drug peddlers in Mumbai and neighbouring areas, he said.
Dixit and a co-accused perfected the formula for producing mephedrone through experiments, he said. The racket began to unravel after the ANC Worli team arrested a drug peddler in eastern Mumbai’s Govandi area in March this year and seized 250 grams of the drug from him, the official said. It led to the arrest of two persons including a woman and seizure of 2.7 kg of mephedrone.
The ANC subsequently arrested another accused which was followed by the raid in Nalasopara.”We have now made a seventh arrest in this case,” DCP Nalawade said. The accused used social media platforms and calling apps for peddling the drug, he said. Mephedrone, also known as ‘meow meow’ or MD, is a synthetic psychotropic stimulant banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
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