New Delhi: The Telangana anti-narcotics force has busted an interstate synthetic drugs syndicate allegedly run by two teachers under an alias, and a dhaba owner, who exploited legal chemical supply channels to manufacture and distribute the banned drugs mephedrone and clophedrone.
The three main accused, identified as Veerender Swamy, Manoj Kumar Mathur and Manish Bishnoi, sourced around 300 kg of precursor chemicals in multiple consignments from one Rafi Shaik—a Hyderabad-based businessman with a PhD in organic chemistry who runs legitimate chemical supply firms. These consignments were allegedly routed through fictitious entities to clandestine labs in Agra and near Hyderabad. Rafi is not an accused in the case.
While Swamy orchestrated the network using the alias ‘Girish Thapar’, Bishnoi handled logistics through his ‘Jodhpur Dhaba’ in Telangana’s Medak, and Manoj Kumar managed production and distribution from Agra, according to investigators, unravelling a sprawling operation that stretched across Telangana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
Officials of the Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement (EAGLE), Telangana’s specialised anti-narcotics force, stumbled upon the syndicate in the last few months when they traced Rafi’s firm S.R. Innovations India advertising online sale of 2-Bromo-4-Methylpropiophenone and 3-Chloro-1-phenyl-1-propanone—precursor chemicals for mephedrone and clophedrone, respectively.
The chemicals are used to produce mephedrone and clophedrone, two synthetic stimulants with high abuse potential, addictive nature and health risks. The drugs are considered to be in high demand among youngsters, and are banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
On inquiring from Rafi, they found that the precursor chemicals, in three installments of 100 kg each, were shipped by courier to a firm named Bhawani Acid & Chemicals, whose address was in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district. The recipient of the shipment was known to the supplier as Girish Thapar.
“The precursor 2-Bromo-4-Methylpropiophenone can be converted into the synthetic drug mephedrone through a single-step chemical reaction. Thus, the purchasers of the precursors from Rafi Shaik were traced to find out if mephedrone was being produced illegally for sale to drug addicts,” a Telangana Police officer told ThePrint.
On probe, neither the firm Bhawani Acid & Chemicals nor its proprietor Girish Thapar were found at the Karnataka address provided to the supplier. On tracing the courier delivery details, officials found that the consignments were being routed to other locations in accordance with instructions from the receiver.
“The fact that the firm, which was receiving these precursor chemicals in such huge quantities, was a fictitious entity raised the grave suspicion that the chemicals were routed to some clandestine facilities where mephedrone was being produced,” EAGLE Director Sandeep Shandilya told ThePrint.
The investigators had a breakthrough on 1 March when a joint team of the Telangana and Rajasthan Police arrested Veerender Swamy and his business partner Manish Bishnoi from Jodhpur when they were entering Rajasthan. They were allegedly giving a head start to a consignment of contraband being transported by a truck running some kilometres behind.
Swamy, a mathematics teacher, was using the pseudonym Girish Thapar for the illicit trade, the FIR filed by the Telangana Police in the matter states.
Then, last Friday, a joint team of the Telangana EAGLE and Uttar Pradesh Police nabbed accused Manoj Kumar Mathur in Agra, who led them to an obscure facility where the banned drugs were being produced and transported through aides and agents to other parts of the country, including Rajasthan. An FIR has been filed in the case and seen by ThePrint.
Mathur and Swamy were teaching in Rajasthan’s Barmer around a decade ago, where they developed a friendship before Mathur moved to UP’s Agra and rented a shop to manufacture the banned drugs, police sources said.
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‘Syndicate obtained precursors via legal channels’
Rafi, an alumnus of Pondicherry University, told the Telangana EAGLE team that he runs two firms that supply chemicals to business enterprises.
As part of his business, he sources chemicals from other suppliers and manufacturers and sell them to buyers through online marketplaces such as IndiaMART, ExportersIndia and TradeIndia. He has a list of around 537 chemicals and biological products on these platforms, including the two precursor chemicals for the banned drugs.
He said he supplied a total of 300 kg of precursors to Swamy and his syndicate in three instalments of 100 kg each starting last September. Rafi was paid a sum of Rs 6.5 lakh for each, the Telangana EAGLE found in its probe. The payments were made by Manish Bishnoi, a close aide and business partner of Swamy.
Sources in the Telangana Police told ThePrint that a resident of Rajasthan’s Dausa district, Bishnoi had set up an eatery named ‘Jodhpur Dhaba’ alongside the highway in the state’s Medak district, where Swamy was a regular visitor.
The officials said that Bishnoi earlier used to steal oil from tankers coming to the dhaba before progressing to form a full-fledged cartel for the drug racket.
Over the last six months, officials said the syndicate produced and moved consignments of mephedrone weighing 7 kg, 10 kg, and 23 kg. However, Swamy and Bishnoi were taken into custody on 1 March.
“This syndicate obtained the precursor chemicals in huge quantities via legal channels, which were sent to a fictitious entity. The precursors were then routed to their facilities in Agra and near Hyderabad,” a second Telangana Police officer said.
While the precursors were sourced from Rafi’s firm, the machine used to manufacture contraband was sourced from a firm named Sri Shiva Scientific Technologies, the officials said.
The final contraband was supplied to their group of agents in Rajasthan, with the extent of operation still under investigation. “The accused will be interrogated on the overall extent of the racket related to the end recipient of the contraband,” a third official said.
The ninth apex-level meeting of the 4-tier Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD), chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah this January, had identified Telangana as a hotspot for manufacturing of synthetic drugs.
Officials from EAGLE thus began gathering intelligence on the sale and purchase of precursors for drugs, which led them to the interstate racket.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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