Maharashtra: Thane Police busts drugs manufacturing and trafficking racket racket, 8 held

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The Thane Police in Maharashtra has busted a drugs manufacturing and trafficking racket in Thane district and nabbed eight people in connection with the matter, the police said, according to the PTI.

The police said that the arrested persons were allegedly involved in a drug manufacturing and trafficking racket. The police also seized mephedrone worth Rs 55.7 lakh in the operation, an official said on Friday, as per the PTI.

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The racket came to light following the arrest of Thane residents Jayesh Pradeep Kambli (25) and Vignesh Vinayak Shirke (28), who were found in possession of 78.8 gm of mephedrone, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shivraj Patil said, as per the PTI.

A probe led the police to drug suppliers Ahmed Mohammad Shafi Sheikh alias Akbar Khau (41) and Shabbir Abdul Karim Sheikh (44), who were apprehended from Chincoti in Vasai on January 5, he said, the news agency reported on Friday.

The other accused Mohammad Rasi Hanif Ansari (47) and Mohammad Amir Amantullah Khan (44), both from Kurla in Mumbai, were subsequently arrested later in the month, the official said, the PTI reported.

Khan's arrest led the police to Manoj Patil alias Bala, who was an accused in a drugs case in Gujarat and had jumped parole in March 2023, he said.

Bala changed his location frequently, but the police team worked on several inputs and finally nabbed him from Khalapur in the neighbouring Raigad district on February 6, and his associate Dinesh Devji Mhatre (38) was caught in Pen on February 10.

The police have seized mephedrone worth Rs 55.73 lakh and raw materials and chemicals worth Rs 59,000 used in manufacturing the drug, the official said.

Meanwhile, in an another incident, two persons, including a 60-year-old woman, were held after the Palghar Police recovered drugs worth nearly Rs 12 lakh from them in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official said on Thursday, reported the PTI.

Acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap near a school in Nalasopara, on the outskirts of Mumbai, and intercepted one Bajrang Suresh Kasbe (24) and the woman Purnima Raju Rathod on Tuesday, he said.

A search revealed that they were carrying 105 grams of MD and 3.4 grams of brown sugar, collectively worth Rs 11.84 lakh. They had procured the drugs from a certain Ankush Gava of Nalasopara, he said.

A case has been registered against Kasbe and Rathod under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

(with PTI inputs)