Mephedrone worth Rs 101 crore seized from Jodhpur factory was meant for MMR areas: Probe

While the key member of the racket, Prashant Patil from Pune, has been arrested, police have launched a hunt for two more members of the group who were running the drugs business.

Sachin Kadam, a real estate businessman from Osmanabad, and Anil Bishnoi, a drug distributor from Rajasthan, are under police scanner, a police officer from Sakinaka station said.

Patil, who is a graduate in Chemistry and works in a private firm, spent a year on the internet researching and collecting information on how to cook Mephedrone, commonly known as MD, using only openly available chemicals, said senior inspector Gabaji Chimte.

He experimented and cooked the drug two to three times, successfully perfecting the product, the inspector said. A year ago, he came in contact with Sachin Kadam through common friends. The two collaborated and set up a factory in Osmanabad to cook MD, a source said.

But as Maharashtra Police was cracking down on illegal drug factories, Kadam, with a criminal past, contacted his friend Anil Bishnoi, who is into drug distribution business in Rajasthan, seeking help to set up a factory there, an officer said.

Bishnoi introduced Kadam and Patil to Hukumram Chaudhary, the owner of the Mogra Khurd (Jodhpur)-based land on which the illegal factory was being used to cook MD. With Chaudhary’s help, the gang got a factory and godown arranged for cooking MD and storing it and its raw materials. Patil would visit Jodhpur, cook MD and return to Pune by adjusting his time with the job timings.

“Once the MD drug is cooked, Bishnoi would use his network of associates to distribute it to drug peddlers in Mumbai and other parts of MMR,” said an officer part of the investigation.

Police are on the look out for Kadam and Bishnoi. So far five people have been arrested in the case under various sections of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.