Police have seized raw materials and chemicals of Rs 4 lakh, capable of producing mephedrone (MD) valued at Rs 100 crore, after busting a drug manufacturing network in Mumbai, officials said on Tuesday.
With the seizure, the police have foiled the peddlers’ plan to flood the market with synthetic drugs, they said.
A probe that began early last month into a mephedrone peddling network recently led to the seizure of chemicals and manufacturing equipment with a total value of Rs 4 lakh from Saman Nagari and Azmi Nagar in Malwani and Mauje Manori in Gorai, all in Mumbai, as per officials.
Their potential market value as finished products would have reached the Rs 100-crore mark, Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar crime unit’s senior police inspector Pramod Badakh claimed.
“Had the police limited the investigation to mere arrests and failed to probe further, this raw material would have been processed into finished MD and distributed through peddlers,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Doiphode said.
So far, the police have seized 6.773 kg of MD valued at Rs 13.61 crore, the official said.
The items seized include 255 litres of medicinal chemicals, sodium hydroxide pellets, hydrochloric acid, acetone, dichloromethane, melamine, chloroform and specialised laboratory equipment such as heating mantles, flasks, recovery flasks, and addition pots, according to police.
The total haul is valued at Rs 13.65 crore. A total of 13 persons, including two women, have been arrested so far, they said.
The crackdown began on April 4 when a raid in the Nayanagar area of Mira Road in Thane district led to the recovery of 1.32 kg of MD valued at Rs 2.66 crore from a woman, identified as Firdos Arbaz Qureshi, the official said.
Subsequent interrogation of Firdos and her husband, Arbaz Vakil Qureshi, blew the lid off a larger network, leading to the arrest of several others, he said.
The accused have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
