Mephedrone worth Rs 1,400 cr seized near Mumbai, five held

PTI

Mumbai, August 4

The Mumbai police seized more than 700 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 1,400 crore following a raid at a drug manufacturing unit at Nalasopara in Palghar district, and arrested five persons, officials said on Thursday.

Synthetic stimulant

Mephedrone, also known as ‘meow meow’ or MD, is a synthetic stimulant and a psychotropic substance banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

The anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the Mumbai crime branch conducted the raid at the unit located in Nalasopara (west) on Wednesday and recovered the contraband that was meant to be supplied to drug peddlers in Mumbai and its neighbouring areas, they said.

The main accused in the case is a postgraduate in organic chemistry, who got the formula of producing mephedrone through experiments, he said, adding one of the other four arrested accused was a woman.

“The raid was carried out based on specific inputs, which the ANC’s Worli team had received after the arrest of a drug peddler from Govandi, a suburb in Mumbai, in March this year. Mephedrone weighing 250 gm had been recovered from him at that time,” he said.

During his interrogation, the ANC officials learnt that some more persons were involved in the illegal activity, following which they arrested the woman and one more person, and seized 2.760 kg of mephedrone.

Continuing its probe into the supply chain, the Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested one more accused and nabbed the main accused a day later following the raid at his Nalasopara unit.

“The ANC team recovered 701.740 kg mephedrone valued at Rs 1,403 crore from the accused,” said Datta Nalawade, Deputy Commissioner of Police (ANC), at a press conference.

During the probe, it came to light that the main accused himself was manufacturing the banned drug, he said.

“The main accused is a 52-year-old man, who holds a postgraduate degree in organic chemistry. After experimenting with various chemicals, he found out the formula of producing mephedrone,” he said, adding he was producing “high quality” substance.

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