Maharashtra: Cocaine worth Rs 11.7 lakh seized from auto rickshaw in Thane; driver held

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The Thane Police in Maharashtra seized cocaine worth Rs 11.7 lakh from an auto rickshaw and arrested the driver in Thane city, a police official said on Sunday, reported the PTI.

According to the PTI, acting on a tip-off, a team from the crime branch intercepted the vehicle at Modella Naka on Friday afternoon, the official said.

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On inspection, the team recovered the contraband worth Rs 11.7 lakh, and arrested the driver, Manjit Sitaram Saw (36), a resident of neighbouring Mumbai, he said.

A case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was registered against the accused at the Wagle Estate police station, the official said, as per the PTI.

A probe has been initiated to find out where the contraband was sourced from and if the accused was part of a racket, he said.

Meanwhile, Mumbai police had recently said that it had recovered Rs 3.46 crore cash from a house in Bhiwandi, Thane district. The cash was allegedly kept by the main accused in a mephedrone drugs bust case in Sangli district of Maharashtra.

A mephedrone manufacturing unit was busted in Sangli on last Monday and contraband worth Rs 252 crore was seized, leading to the arrest of 10 persons.

As per PTI report, "During questioning, main accused Pravin Shinde (34) said he had hidden Rs 3.46 crore cash in a painter's house in Bhiwandi. A Crime Branch team recovered several bags full of currency," an official said.

"The painter has told us he kept the bag on the instructions of Pravin Shinde, who had engaged him to paint his house in Thane's Kasarvadavali area. The money is proceeds from mephedrone deals," he added.

Earlier, the Mumbai Police had unearthed a drug manufacturing unit in Maharashtra's Sangli district and seized more than 100 kg of mephedrone. Based on specific inputs, crime branch sleuths conducted a raid and discovered the drug manufacturing unit at Irali village, the official said, reported PTI.

The unit was situated in a farm, from where the police seized more than 100 kg of mephedrone, a synthetic stimulant drug, the official said. Police also recovered raw materials used in manufacturing drugs.

(with PTI inputs)