The Anti Narcotic Cell of Thane crime branch has busted a factory manufacturing mephedrone (MD) drug across the state. The police had overall arrested eight accused and have said to have broken a drugs syndicate involving a local peddler, supplier and manufacturer. The police said the manufacturer the main accused had established a factory in a farmhouse in Pen, Raigad. They also set up another manufacturing unit in the Taloja MIDC area which is also busted by the police.
The police had overall seized drugs including MD (mephedrone) and Hashish worth Rs 55.73 lakh, manufacturing material and chemicals worth Rs 59,000 and vehicles and other things.
The ANC of Thane crime branch got a breakthrough when they first arrested two people on December 28, 2023. The police seized 78 grams of MD from Jayesh Kambli alias Golu (25) and Vignesh Shirke (28). A case was registered against them at Thane Nagar police station under section of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act. “Further tracing their supplier we arrested Ahmed Shaikh alias Akbar Khau and Shabbir Shaikh (44) a Kurla resident. We apprehended them from Palghar and seized 26 grams of MD and 4.850 grams of hashish from them. Leading further we found Shaikh was getting the supply from Mohammed Rais Ansari (48) and Ansari was getting it from Amir Khan (44). Both were arrested on 18 and 29 January, respectively,” said a police officer.
The police said on investigating Amir Khan they found he was getting the drugs from Manoj Patil alias Bala (45). Khan also revealed that Patil was earlier arrested in Gujarat for such drugs drug-related case. “We inquired about Patil to find he was released on parole from Gujarat-based jail in March 2023. Since then he has jumped parole and is wanted and police are searching for him. We found he was not using any mobile phone and was using an internet dongle to make WhatsApp calls. Through technical details, he was traced and arrested from Khalapur in Raigad district on February 6. Later Dinesh Mhatre 38, Patil`s associate was arrested on February 10,” said an police officer.
Shivraj Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Thane crime branch said, “During the primary investigation we found Patil, Mhatre and Amir Khan had established an MD manufacturing unit at a farmhouse in Kalad village in Pen, Raigad district. They rent the farmhouse from June 2023 to November 2023 and manufactured the drugs and supplied them to Amir to further reach the local peddlers,” added Patil.
The police said as the owner of the house in Pen got suspicious the accused changed their location to a rented unit in Taloja MIDC and started the manufacturing. “It is a complete chain of manufacturer to local peddlers, which is been busted. We are further investigating to check if any more people are involved in the syndicate. The investigation is going on,” said Sanjay Shinde, senior police inspector, Anti-Narcotic Cell, Thane crime branch.
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