New Delhi: For the Pune City Police Crime Branch, it was a fairly “routine” tip-off about a banned substance, until it wasn’t. The tip-off about Mephedrone (MD) being transported across the city Monday eventually led to what is being hailed as the largest seizure of the banned substance recorded anywhere in India to date.
The Crime Branch has so far seized 1,700 kg of “premium quality” MD carrying a street value of approximately Rs 3,200 crore. It has also arrested seven people who, according to sources in the police, are suspected to be part of an international drug syndicate.
The arrests were preceded by the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) under sections 8 (prohibition of certain operations), 22 (punishment for contravention about psychotropic substances) and 29 (Punishment for abetment and criminal conspiracy) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
“Based on the initial input, we gathered further information on different locations where Mephedrone was being manufactured and stored and our teams carried out search operations to seize the banned substance and arrest the accused,” Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told ThePrint.
“We have been able to dissect that drugs used by this syndicate were also couriered to London. So far we have arrested eight accused and have seized nearly 1,700 kg of MD worth approximately Rs 3,200 crore,” he added.
Mephedrone is a central nervous system stimulant which is known to significantly increase hyperactivity. It is also commonly called Meow Meow, White Magic and M-Cat, and was added as a banned substance under the NDPS Act, in 2015.
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From 1.75 kg to 1,700 kg Meow Meow
Police officers probing the case said as soon as the they received the tip-off from a constable, a team was constituted that arrested Vaibhav alias Pintya Bharat Mane (42) and Ajay Amarnath Karosiya (35), who was driving the car from which they recovered nearly 1.75 kg of MD Monday. After the registration of an FIR, the duo was interrogated about the source of the seized Mephedrone and the route on which it was being transported.
Police sources told ThePrint that the two confessed to procuring the banned substance from one Haider Noor Shaikh (40), a resident of Vishrantwadi, a suburb of Pune.
Vaibhav and Shaikh are “professional criminals” who were lodged at Pune’s Yerwada jail on multiple charges including murder and attempt to murder, said one source, adding that the duo forged a “business relationship” while in jail and that it was Shaikh who convinced Vaibhav to join him as a “courier” transporting ‘Meow Meow’.
The source added that Shaikh and Vaibhav admitted to having initially procured the banned substance from two foreign nationals they met in Yerwada jail and that at least 10 teams of the Crime Branch are on the lookout for the foreign nationals in question.
Another Crime Branch officer told ThePrint that the unit seized approximately 52 kg of the banned substance from godowns near Shaikh’s residence in Pune’s Vishrantwadi.
The real revelation, said the officer, came when Shaikh pointed them in the direction of a facility registered under the name of Earthchem Laboratories Pvt. Ltd, at Kurkumbh, an industrial area on the outskirts of Pune. The Crime Branch was taken aback by the magnitude of the operation, he said, adding that the presence of raw materials there confirmed that the facility was being used to mass manufacture the banned substance.
As much as 600 kg of Mephedrone and raw materials for its synthesis were recovered from the facility owned by Pune resident Anil Sable and an ‘expert’ advising him on the chemical formula of the banned substance. The Crime Branch arrested Sable from Pune and the “chemical expert” from Mumbai’s Borivali area Tuesday.
‘Storage space’ in Delhi
The officer quoted earlier told ThePrint that with each arrest the investigating officers kept getting more information about other moving parts of the alleged syndicate.
Having sealed the facility in Pune and having made five arrests in the case till Tuesday evening, the Crime Branch then set its sights on two stores operating in southern Delhi.
Another officer told ThePrint that these stores were being used as “storage space” for the banned substance. Once the information was verified, the Delhi police were roped in for a joint raid at these premises from where they recovered 900 kg of ‘Meow Meow’.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South District, Ankit Chauhan said that around 300 kg of ‘Meow Meow’ was recovered from the Kotla Mubarakpur area while another consignment of around 600 kg was recovered from a rented shop in the Hauz Khas area. The Pune Crime Branch also made two arrests from one of the locations in Delhi, he added.
‘International cartel’
According to an officer in the Pune City Police Crime Branch, investigators suspect that the syndicate may have also sent some amount of Mephedrone to foreign countries including the United Kingdom. The officer, however, refused to share details of the same citing the ongoing probe into the matter.
The officer, however, said that the syndicate appears to be running ‘Meow Meow’ from Pune to Mumbai, Delhi, and West Bengal.
Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP), Crime, Shailesh Balkawade told ThePrint that the estimated street value of the total seizure makes this the biggest ‘Meow Meow’ syndicate ever busted in India. He, however, refused to speculate the price of the seized substance.
Asked whether the suspects were part of any pre-existing drug cartel operating in Maharashtra — including that believed to be run by Lalit Patil, who has been on the state police’s radar for a long time — ACP Balkawde said they are yet to come across any substantial evidence linking the syndicate to the one run by Patil.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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