Mumbai: When in the early sixties, Mumbai has served as a major transit point for drug smugglers, with its easily available air, water and land transportation. With the advent of synthetic drugs, it has moved a step further, quietly establishing itself in a manufacturing center with urban areas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Area (MMR).
This is especially true about Mefedron, a synthetic stimulant, also known by its street name, MD. Discrete MD Manufacturing, which began in faulty factories in some chemical hubs, has now reached homes in Nalsopara, a distant suburb that has developed in a huge network of cladstine manufacturing units. From small flats to secluded farmhouses and hidden chemical plants, places here are churning synthetic narcotics worth crores of rupees every day.
These illegal operations are not only they. MD manufacturing is happening through industrial corridors, in midk zone such as trans-channel Creek and in world class logistics hub. The manufacture of synthetic drugs may not be easy for abundant and easily available raw materials that can be taken without any doubt, and the Mumbai Police says they have seen all this.
A 300-class foot flat in Nalasopara
The bravery of a seven-year-old boy helped the Tulinj police to busted a manufacturing unit and fix the value of the high-grade MD 50 million.
It was a hot on Friday afternoon, and the police sub-inspector Rahul Fad and his team were roaming in the Dingi Lane of Pragi Nagar in the suburb, which had long been a hideout for foreigners, especially Nigerian citizens, who had been living illegally in India. It was here that he stumbled on the MD-Making unit being run from a 300-class foot flat in a dilapidated building.
As the team entered the four -storey Anishit Plaza and potentially began knocking on the door to examine a woman, a woman, a woman, a woman of African origin. Fad asked her to stop but before she asked where she lived, the woman ran away. Saying that she was an illegal resident, the police chased and caught her.
The residents of the building were mummy when the police asked her if the Nigerian woman stayed in the building, but the seven -year -old Vedanta Singh, who had just come out of her house, informed the police that she had stayed on the fourth floor. Initially after protesting, the woman eventually handed over the key of the house to the police.
On entering the flat, the authorities were surprised to know that the campus was a Mekshift MD factory which included only one fan, a stove, some utensils and two lamps. The thick white crystal was being dried on a mat and was also inside a pot on the stove. “The strong smell coming out of the stove was enough for us to know that it was MD,” Fad said.
When questioned, the 26 -year -old woman, Rita Fati Curabui, broke and revealed that she had rented the room a year ago and visited it every day to make MD. Kurebewei, who lived in a neighboring building with her boyfriend, Henrachana Uwakway, was taught by Uwak to make medicines, which handled the sale. The couple will travel to Gujarat and Rajasthan every two months for raw materials, said that the police recovered the high class MD 5 crores from room.
Mokhada Farmhouse Factory
After extracting information from drug pedals at Meera Road, Meera Bhayandar-Basai Virar (MBVV) Police reached a secluded moderate farmhouse in a remote tribal village in Mokhada taluka in Palghar district on 24 October, 2023. When they reached the spot, the farmhouse was closed and caretaker slept outside. The police opened it to find a sophisticated chemical laboratory with a test tube, beaker and lots of raw materials to make it MD.
The owner of the farmhouse, Sameer Chandrashekhar Pinjara, 45, lived alone and produced MDs, producing at least one kilogram of MDs every three to four days. Pinjara then would give 38 -year -old drug to his close aide, Gautam Ghosh, who packed it and distributed it to the pedals. MBVV Crime Branch seized drugs 36 crore and seven people arrested.
In the name of goat cultivation
Another MD factory, run from a farmhouse to a place which was a goat farm, was busted by the RCF Police in May. The racket came to know about this April when an RCF police team patrolled the chamber area, saw a suspected drug pedaler Rehan Sheikh, and found 45 grams of MD Worth 4.5 lakhs, in his possession. Going over the series, they reached Sonu Pathan, an alleged wholesaler of drugs. His interrogation took him to the farmhouse, from where he seized raw materials and equipment 70 crores.
The factory was planned by an accused, Shakeel Memon, who was first by Naya Nagar Police in Meera Road in 2021. 1.5 crore laboratory. The father-son duo also bought 27 goats and some dogs and placed them in a farmhouse to hide the strong smell of MD. Whenever someone from the vicinity inquired about the smell, Mamon will tell them that it was due to the vaccination of goats and dogs.
Ambernath, Ankleshwar, Chemical Factory Bust
A Govandi pedaler with an anti-nashi cell (ANC) began with a large-scale drug bust to arrest in his possession with 250 grams of MD. After tracking some other layers of the drugs network, Verli Unit reached Praveen Kumar Singh and recovered 705 kg MD from his commercial tenment in Nalasopara. On August 8, ANC arrested Kiran Pawar, the manager of Namau Chem, a chemical factory in Ambernath, where the industrial volume of the drug was manufactured.
A forensic audit of Singh’s bank account shows big deposits and other transactions 50 crores alone in the last few months. According to police investigation, Singh, who lives from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, started production and supply of MDs, such as epidemic lockdown began, causing spilling anxiety and demand. Singh, who had studied organic chemistry, moved to Mumbai and earlier worked as an observer and manager in several chemical units in the city.
Later, as a result of the investigation, Giriraj Dixit (54) was arrested, which became worth together in Augaleshwar, Gujarat, with the owner of a factory and 513 kg MD and raw materials, together. 1,026 crore. ANC officials said Singh, who had earlier worked in a pharmaceutical company in Gujarat, met Dixit and assured him to allow him to build MD in his factory. For about a year, Singh visited the Ankleshwar factory and directed the employees on the construction of drugs. The drug bust led the seizure of 812 kg white powder and 397 kg of chemicals, which was suspected of being used in the production of MD from Dixit’s factory.
“We later found that each of the three consignments of 500 kg MD was constructed in the factory in 2022 and rushed to Singh’s commercial place in Nalasopara,” DCP Dutta Nalwade said, which was taking back ANC.
Sangli MD Factory
The Mumbai Police bushes a drug factory in the Crime Branch Sangli district, which was being run for about seven months and seized 122 kg of high quality MD and Gold Worth. 253 crores.
All this started on February 16, 2024, when the police arrested four people and seized four kilograms of MD from them. The accused – Vasudev Laxman Jadhav, 34, Prasad Mohite, 24, Vikas Malme, 25, 25, 28- are residents of Kawatha Mahakal in Sangli district, while Laxman Balu Shinde, 35, Mastermind has given him a residence of Kolapur district.
Shinde, after completing his SSC, came to Thane, where four criminal cases were registered against him. He joined the drug business a few years ago when he met a person in jail in 2016 and started selling the control in the city. He later moved to Varanasi, where he learned to make high quality MDs.
After purchasing a 12-acre conspiracy at his original place, Shinde established the laboratory on half an acre of land a year ago and began the construction of MD about seven months ago. So far, he has built more than 1,000 kg, Dutta Nalavade said, then DCP in the Crime Branch.
After arresting four people in February, the police came to know about the Sangli lab and seized 3.641 kg MD from them. Parvin Bano Ghulam Sheikh was first arrested on 16 February in Santa Cruz. After interrogation, he confessed that Sajid Mohammad Asif Sheikh Alias Debas supplied him drugs, and he was arrested on the same day. His interrogation led the police to Ijj Ali Ansari and Adil Imtiaz Vohra and eventually Sangli lab on 18 February.
Subsequently, Police Inspector Atmaji Sawant and his team worked for several days in Ili village located in the factory and arrested six people. He seized 122 kg high quality MD, 15 lakh cash, and gold, all around the value together 253 crores.
