10 March,2017 02:56 PM IST | | Suraj Ojha
Going by the statistics of the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC), Dongri is now the city's new drug capital. The statistics show that 49 of the 166 drug dealers arrested from the city in the past year were from the Dongri area
Going by the statistics of the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC), Dongri is now the city's new drug capital. The statistics show that 49 of the 166 drug dealers arrested from the city in the past year were from the Dongri area.
On Tuesday morning, cops made a sizeable recovery. ANC arrested one Kamran Javed Shaikh (29) a Dongri resident, following the recovery of 68 grams of MDMA worth Rs 1,34,000. In his statement to the police, Shaikh revealed that his entire family is into drug dealing. One of his brothers used to work for Haseena Parkar, the late sister of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. According to sources from ANC, many of the drug dealers have connections with the underworld.
Getting good info
As per ANC's statistics, 49 drug peddlers were arrested from Dongri from 2016. In the same period, 23 were held from Ghakopar, Shivaji Nagar and Govandi, while 13 were picked up from Malvani and Madh, while 12 were arrested from Hanuman Tekdi in Bandra. Regarding the uptick in arrests, joint commissioner of police (crime), Sanjay Saxena told mid-day, "Our officers are getting good results since we're getting good information from the particular area."
Nightmare area
Policing Dongri has been a nightmare for the local cops with increasing number of peddlers, especially Africans, settled in this pocket and openly sold drugs to youngsters from South Bombay. Officers feared raiding at their places as they have been beaten up, often to the point of severe injuries, in the past several years when they went to arrest the peddlers.
"This pocket of the city was affected with African drug peddlers from a very long time. Recently, we cracked one of the biggest cartels and arrested around 15 Nigerians," said deputy commissioner of police Shivdeep Lande.
Failed sabak
Operation Sabak is the most evident example of the police's failure to control the drug cartels in the area. On April 29, 2016, the Crime Branch decided to have the operation in Wadi Bunder and swoop in to arrest all the drug peddlers in the area. But the plan failed miserably, as all of them managed to escape, and injure eight cops in the process.
