After producer spills beans on his key supplier, Anti-Narcotics Cell officers take Yatin Sanghvi in custody from Arthur Road Jail to probe about the 40 kg Meow Meow he still has to sell
Meow Meow is a synthetic stimulant drug. It is chemically similar to cathinone compounds, which are easily available with chemical and pharma dealers. Representation pic
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The dope just got deeper in this inter-state drug racket bust. Four days after the arrest of Punjabi film producer Pinky Basrao from a New Delhi hotel, he has now spilled the beans on his supplier, Yatin Lalit Sanghvi (39), and revealed to the ANC crime branch officials that there is a large 40-kg consignment of Meow Meow at an undisclosed facility in Maharashtra.
Also read - Mumbai: As 'meow meow' gets mainstream, dealers come up with new code words
Sanghvi, a resident of Pantnagar, Ghatkopar, was arrested on Thursday after his custody was taken from Arthur Road Jail. He has been in jail over a previous arrest in February for supplying 2.5 kg mephedrone (MD), more popularly known as Meow Meow. Sanghvi is an expert in the chemical business with over 13 years of experience working in the popular SoBo drugs market - Dawa Bazaar.
Flashback
Sanghvi’s activities were exposed after Basrao alias Rakesh Paji’s arrest by ANC API Nitin Bodhe, DCP Shivdeep Lande and a team from a New Delhi hotel. Basrao most notably produced the Om Puri and Gurdas Maan starrer Yaariyan in 2008. Since then, with his film career on the down low, Basrao had taken to supplying drugs to the owner of a Mumbai-based courier company, which would then peddle them in the market.
Also read: Punjabi film producer Basrao gets arrested in drugs case
“Pinky told us that he is debt-ridden as he had been unsuccessful in his film producing work. A few years ago, he came in contact with Sanghvi at a hotel and it was Sanghvi who suggested he take this up as the film industry could be fertile grounds to sell drugs,” an officer said.
DCP Lande had earlier said that Basrao’s name had cropped up after two men, a courier boy Vicky Nadar (26) and an NCP officer bearer Sunil Dhutia, were arrested on February 10 for possessing 1 kg Meow Meow.
More where that came from
Sources in the ANC revealed that Basrao told investigators that his main supplier was one Yatin Sanghvi, who not only supplied him with 5 kg of Meow Meow, but also told him to approach for more as he had 40 kg ready to sell. In light of the information, the ANC decided to take Sanghvi’s custody and probe him for the complete picture of the racket.
Sources claimed that Sanghvi is instrumental in manufacturing MD with the help of his friend, who is operating from another state, and is now on the ANC’s radar. “Under the guise of fertilizers, Sanghvi would provide his friend in a southern state with the raw chemicals from Dawa Bazaar. Meanwhile, after manufacturing the MD, his friend would send it back to Sanghvi in Maharashtra via roads. In a nifty move, it would be hidden in the vehicle’s tire tubes and under the hidden cavity in seats,” another source said.
Another source said that ANC officials suspect that Sanghvi’s racket is not just inter-state, but operational overseas too.
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