Narcos, a new season in Maharashtra: The sibling act

Mephedrone, in a nutshell

The officer said that for very long, most of the recently busted operations – over the last month, a series of factory raids across Maharashtra have led to at least 28 arrests and the seizure of drugs worth over Rs 1200 crore – escaped the attention of law enforcement agencies largely unnoticed because they involved only family members.

“These businesses operated like a cottage industry to ensure no one tipped-off the police,” quipped the officer.

Daya Nayak, a senior inspector at Mumbai Crime Branch (Unit IX), said these gangs that manufacture and supply mephedrone operate independently of each other. And that is how, over the past month, three “sibling-run businesses” have come on the radar of Maharashtra anti-narcotics agencies.

Here’s a look at the faces behind these operations.

The Rajput brothers

The most prominent among these sibling entrepreneurs are the Rajput brothers, believed to be India’s biggest suppliers of synthetic drugs, especially ketamine and mephedrone.

While Kailash Rajput, 52, fled the country around 2014 and is currently believed to be holed up in London, officials said Kamal, 50, was arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch on September 25.

They said Kamal’s arrest had renewed their hopes of getting Kailash extradited to India.

A source added, “Kailash surrendered his passport in London and has sought political asylum there, but it’s that he will get it given his drug peddler background.”

Law enforcement agencies said Kailash is accused of supplying drugs through his network in north-eastern states. An official said, “At one point, we believe he made £150,000 per month from his drug trade in Mumbai alone.”

Kailash, who lived in Mumbai’s Malad and has a third sibling, started out as a small-time player in the early 2000s, said the official.

“By 2010, he started using his network to supply ketamine, ephedrine and other chemicals abroad. He also sent Viagra to Australia, UK and other European countries, where it is illegal,” the official added.

Chemicals supplied by him were either sold directly or used to make synthetic drugs that were sold to networks across the globe, sources said.

An officer said, “Kailash realised that there was scope in supplying restricted chemicals to countries abroad. Two things worked in his favour — India’s status as the global pharma hub and the ease with which these chemicals could be obtained or manufactured here due to lax regulations and corruption.”

The smuggling of chemicals abroad, the official said, was done by his younger brother Kamal, who lived in Andheri and later moved to Vasai.

“Kamal started courier companies. The contraband would be packed in his company’s parcels bound for air cargo. He paid some loaders to ensure his parcels were not scanned. In the Andheri case, in which he has been named as a wanted accused, Kamal sent nearly 70 couriers abroad over six months,” the official added.

Talking about the case under which Kamal has been arrested, officials said it began with a raid on an Andheri-based courier firm.

“During the raid, the police seized 15.74 kg of ketamine worth Rs 7.87 crore and over 23,000 strips of Viagra worth Rs 58 lakh. They were being sent to the UK and Australia. Two persons were arrested. Seven more, including security agents at the airport cargo, were arrested later. We are seeking Kailash’s extradition under this case,” the police said.

Despite being touted as one of India’s biggest drug lords, they said Kailash does not have a long rap sheet in Mumbai. “He was arrested in October 2012 in a case registered against him by the Customs. However, he fled the country around 2014, soon after he got bail from the Bombay High Court. The other case against him was registered by Amboli police in February 2018,” a senior officer said.

They said it is believed that Kailash first fled to Dubai, where he lived for a few years, before moving to the UK. Law agencies believe he came in contact with mob boss Dawood Ibrahim’s drug network while in Dubai and continues to be associated with him. The officer said Kailash’s family travels to Dubai frequently.

When agencies realised the scale of his operations, Red Corner Notices were issued against him to ensure his detention across the world.

An officer said, “Kailash was reportedly detained in Ireland in September last year, but we believe he managed to evade the authorities.”

Though the two cases registered against him in the country – in 2012 and 2018 – will not be enough for the UK to extradite him to India, an officer said the Mumbai Crime Branch was confident of establishing his direct link in the Andheri case, thus giving a boost to the Indian government’s case in the UK.

The official said the matter is being pursued by Central agencies, along with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). “Getting Kailash extradited will be a huge win in our fight against drugs,” the official said.

The Patil brothers

On October 5, the Mumbai Police were tracking the supplier of a gang peddling mephedrone in the city when their search led them to a factory in Nashik, from where they seized 150 kg of mephedrone worth around Rs 300 crore.

The probe revealed that the factory belonged to Bhushan Patil, 43, who turned out to be the brother of another wanted drug lord – Lalit Patil, 47, who had fled police custody only days earlier, on October 2.

An officer said, “We were unaware of the connection between them at the time of the raid. Both the brothers have now been arrested.”

Lalit had been arrested by the Pimpri Chinchwad police in Pune in 2020, following which he was lodged in Yerawada Central Prison. In June this year, Lalit was admitted to the jail ward of Pune’s Sassoon Hospital for treatment of hernia and tuberculosis.

Such was Lalit’s clout, police said, that he allegedly ran his drug empire from hospital with the help of a mobile phone, an aide and a hospital canteen staffer. Police said he escaped from the ward on October 2, after the police stumbled upon his hospital operations.

Soon after his escape, ministers Dada Bhuse and Shambhuraj Desai, and some police officers were accused of helping him flee. The ministers and the police have denied these allegations.

According to the police, just manufacturing and selling mephedrone helped the Patil brothers – Lalit and Bhushan earn nearly Rs 1 crore per month.

DCP Datta Nalawade said, “Their father is a retired LIC agent. While Lalit studied till Class 12, Bhushan studied till Class 8. Bhushan lost his wife a few years ago; he has a son.”

The officer said Lalit, who had done some liaisoning work, was ambitious and wanted to be a politician.

“Having fought the Pune mayoral elections, he realised that he needed a source of income to fulfil his political ambitions. In 2018, while securing bail for an accused in a narcotics case, he realised the profitable nature of the business and turned to drugs,” Nalawade said.

The officer added, “Lalit used Bhushan as a front for all the purchases he made, including the factory.”

The Gawli brothers

Siblings and Class 10 dropouts Rahul Gawli, 32, and Atul Gawli, 28, were arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch on October 14 for allegedly manufacturing mephedrone in a rented factory in their hometown.

According to the police, the Solapur raid led to the seizure of mephedrone and raw materials worth around Rs 116 crore.

The police said the brothers had rented the factory, spread over 2,100 square feet, at the Solapur MIDC. During the raid, the police found books containing chemical formulae and the recipe to cook the drug.

“They lost their parents at a young age, after which Rahul became Atul’s guardian. They earlier worked as helpers at a chemical factory. That stint made them realise how these chemicals could be diverted to manufacture drugs. So they rented a factory and assembled a team,” said Daya Nayak, a senior inspector at Mumbai Crime Branch (Unit IX).

Nayak added, “At the time of the raid, they were in the process of getting a huge house made.”

The police said the brothers had managed to manufacture nearly 60 kg of mephedrone, worth nearly Rs 120 crore, over the past six months.

An officer said, “They had some links with anti-social elements from Hyderabad. Through them, they managed to get in touch with a Hyderabad-based person who was proficient in chemistry to get the recipe to cook mephedrone. After renting a sick unit, they used their expertise to source chemicals and started manufacturing the drug. Their interstate racket sold mephedrone in the south.”

Nayak said, “Parallel gangs operate independently when it comes to supplying mephedrone. While there are no major gangs as such, the brothers ran one of the bigger networks that catered to various states.”