Mumbai police recover drugs worth Rs 70 lakh, nabs 4
Oct 29, 2023
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 30 : The anti-narcotics cell of Mumbai Police on Sunday evening recovered drugs worth Rs 70 lakh and arrested four drug peddlers from Kurla and Dongri area in Maharashtra's Mumbai.
Following the arrests, police registered a case under the National Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
An official of the Mumbai police said all the accused were produced in a court and were sent to police custody.
The accused have been identified, as per police, as Bajid Ashraf (21), Moin Hanif Bhujwala (35), Imran Faruk Shaikh alias Boxer (38) and Riyaz Eliyaz Shaikh (41).
"Azad Maidan Unit and Kandivali Unit of Anti Narcotics Cell arrested 4 drug peddlers from Kurla and Dongri area and recovered MD drugs from them," Mumbai Police said.
"The value of recovered drugs was reported to be Rs 70 lakh in the international market," police said.
On Saturday, a unit of Mumbai crime branch arrested a 58-year-old man who was absconding in a case related to the seizure of mephedrone (MD) drugs worth Rs 16 crore from a factory in Maharashtra's Solapur, as per officials said.
Kailasm Vanmali is the third person to be arrested in the case. Two accused, who are brothers, were arrested earlier in connection with the case.
Daya Nayak, Crime Branch Officer said that the accused was at large since October 14 and had travelled to Telangana, Karnataka as well as Andhra Pradesh, which was his last location traced.
"To nab the accused, a team, on October 19, left for the locations. Initially, the team conducted searches in Solapur. Then, searches were carried out in Bidar (Karnataka) and Zaheerabad (Telangana). Further, the team proceeded to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh as his last location was traced there. The team checked around 50 to 60 lodges in the area and found that the accused halted at one of the lodges in Tirupati. As his mobile was switched off, the team went to Hyderabad to trace his whereabouts," the senior officer said.
"Later, we traced Kailasm Vanmali on October 25 from the Gundalgudha area of Hyderabad and brought him to the unit 9 office (in Maharashtra) for enquiry and arrested him on October 26," he said.
During interrogation, Vanmali confessed to his active role in the said crime, Nayak added.
The Mumbai crime branch earlier this month busted a drug syndicate and seized a total of 8 kg of MD drugs worth Rs 16 crore.
