MUMBAI: The Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai police on Wednesday seized over 700kg of mephedrone (MD) and arrested five people including a 55-year-old chemist, who made the designer drug in Nashik and supplied it from a commercial tenement in Nalasopara on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Deputy commissioner of police (ANC) Datta Nalawade said they raided the Nalasopara tenement, which was used to stock the drugs, and seized 701kg MD with a street value of ₹1,408 crore. The raid was carried out on the information received from some persons arrested in March this year for possession of small quantities of MD.
“After arresting three layers of the syndicate – a peddler, a supplier and a distributor, we finally managed to reach the contraband manufacturer, who used to distribute the contraband from the commercial tenement that he purchased at Nalasopara,” Nalawade said.
“We have seized 701 kg worth around Rs. 1,403 crore from the commercial tenement,” added Nalawade.
The drug trail started on March 29 this year when the ANC’s Worli unit arrested a peddler from the Govandi area with 250 grams of mephedrone. The ANC unit arrested later supplied his drug supplier, also from Govandi, and seized 2.76kg of MD from him. Further investigation revealed the involvement of two more persons, a man and a woman, who distributed MD in the eastern suburbs of the city. Both were arrested on July 27.
The 55-year-old manufacturer, a post-graduate in organic chemistry, was also arrested. Nalawade said he lived in Nalasopara with his wife and two children, used to manufacture the synthetic drug at Nashik and brought the drug to Nalasopara in a tempo.
The drugs – he did not take orders for less than 25kg – were supplied in and around Mumbai within a few hours of receiving the payment in advance.