Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested two men, Mohammad Yunus Shaikh and his brother Mohammad Adil Shaikh, with nearly 800kg of mephedrone worth ₹800 crore from Bhiwandi in Maharashtra’s Thane district.
A team of ATS officials raided a mephedrone manufacturing unit and seized liquid drug worth ₹800 crore. The ATS team carried out a similar operation at a pharmaceutical factory in Bharuch district of Gujarat, where it recovered liquid tramadol worth ₹31 crore.
Also read: 13 packets of cocaine worth ₹130 crore seized off Gujarat’s Kutch coast; ATS launches probe
During a two-day operation on Monday (August 5, 2024) and Tuesday (August 6, 2024), officials arrested four persons who were allegedly involved in manufacture and sale of narcotic substances banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Based on a tip-off, an ATS team raided an apartment in Bhiwandi on Monday (August 5, 2024) from where Mr. Yunus, 41, and Mr. Adil, 34, were caught, said ATS DIG Sunil Joshi.
“Our probe revealed that the two brothers had rented the flat nearly eight months ago to manufacture mephedrone. Their earlier batch failed but this batch was almost ready and the process to produce the final product in powder form was under way when the raid was conducted,” Mr. Joshi said.
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On July 18, the ATS busted a mephedrone manufacturing unit in Palsana area of Surat and seized drugs and raw material worth ₹51.4 crore and arrested three persons. During their interrogation, the ATS gained details about the Shaikh brothers from Maharashtra, who are part of the larger drug cartel.
Anti-Terrorist Squad of Gujarat Police raided a mephedrone manufacturing unit and recovered drugs and material valued at ₹51.4 crore, at Palsana, in Surat on July 18, 2024. | Photo Credit: ANI
In another operation, the agency raided a pharmaceutical unit in Dahej industrial area of Bharuch district and arrested two persons, Pankaj Rajput and Nikhil Kapuria, with liquid tramadol. Tramadol, an opioid pain medication, was notified as a psychotropic substance under the NDPS Act in 2018 and its export is restricted. Mr. Rajput works as a chief chemist at the factory where pharmaceuticals are made while Mr. Kapuria owns a chemical trading firm.
“Kapuria had convinced Rajput to produce tramadol. They acquired the raw material from a firm in Ahmedabad, whose owner is Harshad Kukadiya. After preparing the liquid active pharmaceutical ingredient, the duo used to send the liquid to Kukadiya. With the help of his aides, Kukadiya used to send the liquid to a factory in Gandhinagar to prepare tramadol tablets,” Mr. Joshi said.
Also read: Cocaine worth ₹800 crore seized in Gujarat
While Mr. Rajput and Mr. Kapuria have been arrested, efforts are on to arrest others involved in this racket.
In a separate case on July 29, the Customs department seized 68 lakh tramadol tablets worth ₹110 crore from two export containers destined for the West African countries of Sierra Leone and Niger from the Mundra Port in Kutch. “It was revealed that the seized tablets were prepared by them and sent to Mundra for export,” Mr. Joshi said.
Tramadol has gained notoriety in recent times as the ‘fighter drug’ after it was reported that ISIS fighters consume it to stay awake for long hours.
