Police nab four with cocaine worth Rs 52 L

Officials of the anti-narcotics cell (ANC) arrested four persons for possessing and trying to sell cocaine to drug lord Ali Saudagar, who operates from Patil Estate in Shivajinagar, on Wednesday afternoon.

The total amount of cocaine seized was 520 gm, which is worth Rs 52 lakh in the international market. Officials said the contraband was in crystal form and claimed is was the first case wherein such a large quantity of cocaine was seized in the city.

In the dock: All the four arrested were produced in the Shivajinagar court and were remanded in police custody till May 6. Pic/Imzanglu Aier

"Acting on a tip-off that two people from UP would be coming to the city on May 1 to sell cocaine to Ali Saudagar and would be meeting two others. These other two also hailed from UP , but had been residing in a small village in Maval taluka named Indoori, which is about 50 km from Pune," said Sunil Tambe, inspector, ANC.

The arrested four were identified as Sajid Khan (35), a resident of Chandoshi, Samsulhasan Saifee (20), of Sambhal district, Rajji Ansari (37) from Bijnaor and Irfan Khan (27) of Ballampur. Both Ansari and Khan, who hailed from UP, had been residing in Indoori village. The fifth accused, Hashmat Ali Khan alias Master, is at large.

"Hashmat and Sajid were supposed to come to the city by train to sell cocaine to Saudagar, and Ansari, Saifee and Irfan were supposed to assist them," Tambe said. He said based on the information, a trap was laid and Sajid, Irfan, Ansari and Saifee were nabbed.

But Hashmat, who was in Talegaon, managed to escape before the police could arrest him. "Rajji and Irfan have been residing in Indoori for about seven years now. While Rajji owns a bakery named Goodluck, Irfan works at a ceramics and POP company in Maval. The two were acquainted with Hashmat, who after getting an order from Saudagar, went to Mathura and got the cocaine," said, Vinod Patil, API of the ANC.

The four were produced in the Shivajinagar court and were remanded in police custody till May 6. Tambe said most of the cocaine consignments are smuggled into the country through UP and Rajasthan, and are imported from neighbouring like Afghanistan and Pakistan. u00a0