Man cooked MD drug after collecting information from internet for a year, arrested after raid at Jodhpur factory

According to the police, on December 31, 2023 a patrolling team of the Sakinaka police arrested Mankhurd resident Sarfaraz Shaikh (22) on the Ghatkopar-Andheri link road with 1.2 kg of MD worth Rs 1.40 crore. Later, his associates Majeed Shaikh (44) and Abdulla Shaikh (44) were arrested too.

Based on their sustained interrogation and analysis of their call details, the investigation team of Sakinaka police got crucial leads about the Pune based manufacturer.

Suspecting the racket could be big, on the instruction of commissioner of police Vivek Phansalkar, special CP Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police (Law and Order) Satyanarayan Chaudhary asked zonal DCP Mangesh Shinde to form a dedicated police team to weed out the real culprit and the mastermind behind the drug racket.

Under the DCP’s supervision, Gabaji Chimte, senior inspector of Sakinaka police, pressed a team into the operation. Working with the leads they had, last week they arrested the suspected mastermind Patil. Patil revealed that his MD manufacturing factory was in Jodhpur. After securing his custody from the court, a police team took him along to Jodhpur and on Saturday raided the factory in Mogra Khurd area of Jodhpur. Subsequently, a godown in Jhalamand area was also raided.

“We have seized 67.5 kg liquid MD worth Rs 101.25 crore and other chemicals, equipment meant for cooking MD totally worth Rs 107.62 crore,” Chimte said.

The land plot and factory owner has been detained for questioning.

Sources told The Indian Express that a police probe revealed that Patil spent a year on the internet researching and collecting information on how to cook MD using only openly available chemicals.

He experimented and cooked the MD drug two to three times and after successfully perfecting the product he wanted, he established a temporary factory setup in a rural area in Marathwada around six months ago. But, as the Sakinaka police and other police in Maharashtra were coming down heavily on the drug racket in the state, before police could reach him, Patil dismantled his factory set up and located it to a deserted place in Jodhpur using the connections he made in the drug industry, the source added.

Patil and other accused have been arrested under relevant sections of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Police are also checking if he has links with any other narcotics manufacturing rackets in the state or outside.