Pune drug bust: 340 kg Mephedrone found in tempo parked by roadside in Vishrantwadi

Based on information obtained from the interrogation of the Pune-based accused Haider Noor Shaikh (40), a police team checked a tempo parked on the roadside in Vishrantwadi area.

During the search, police recovered 340 kg of raw material including chemicals used for making Mephedrone. Police have sent the samples of the seized chemicals for forensic test.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon, police produced Haider and seven other accused – Vaibhav alias Pintya Mane (47), Ajay Karosia (35) of Pune, Ayub Makandar (44) of Kupwada in Sangli, Sandip Rajpal Kumar (39), Divesh Bhuthani (38), Sandip Yadav (32) and Devendra Yadav (32), all residents of New Delhi, before a court in Pune.

Police sought extension in custody of the accused persons to conduct further investigation regarding raw material seized on Saturday.

Also, police told the court that Haider’s interrogation revealed that money received by selling Mephedrone was sent to Delhi through “hawala” channels. Assistant public prosecutor Neelam Yadav Ithape said further investigation is needed to investigate the financial transactions of the Mephedrone racketeers.

Police also submitted that the accused were found to be operating the Mephedrone racket in an organised manner.

Police said a probe into the bank account of the accused revealed the involvement of an international drug cartel.

Police said further custody of the accused was also required to get information about the seven persons wanted in this case.

Judicial Magistrate (first class) S V Birajdar extended police custody of Mane, Karosia and Haider till March 4 and that of other five accused till March 6.
A police team had arrested Mane and Karosia from Somwar Peth in Pune with possession of 500 grams of Mephedrone worth Rs 1 crore, on February 19. An FIR was lodged in this case at the Samarth police station under sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Subsequently, during further probe, cops nabbed eight more accused and seized huge quantities of Mephedrone from a factory in Kurkumbh in Daund taluka of Pune district as well as from Delhi and Sangli.

Probe revealed that Mephedrone manufactured in India was also smuggled to London in ready to eat food packets shipped by a courier agency in Delhi.

Police suspect one of the masterminds in this racket is Sundip Dhuney, who is suspected to be in a foreign country and was lodged in Pune’s Yerawada prison in the past following his arrest by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), a few years before.

Also, police said the role of an African national “Brown” emerged during the investigation. Attempts are on to trace him and probe further links in the Mephedrone racket, police said.