Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Anti-Narcotics Cell of Pune City Police has arrested a man with a criminal record and seized Mephedrone, also known as Meow Meow, worth over Rs 10 lakh from him. According to officials, the police have also identified his supplier in Mumbai and have launched a probe to arrest him.
A team from the Anti-Narcotics Cell was working on the tip-off from the informants of constables Sayyed Sahil Shaikh and Azim Shaikh. Following the lead, the team zeroed in on a suspect who was allegedly selling the contraband next to a hotel near the Pune Railway Station.
On Monday, the team laid a trap and arrested the suspect identified as Sohel Yunus Khopatkar, 45, a resident of Nagpada in Mumbai.
During its search, the police team seized 51.4 gram of Mephedrone worth Rs 10.3 lakh in the illegal market. After which Khopatkar, who is a criminal on police records in Mumbai, was placed under arrest.
Officials said Khopatkar has been booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). “We have identified the supplier of the arrested suspect and have launched a probe to arrest him,” said Inspector Sunil Thopte of the Cell.
Mephedrone, also known as Meow Meow or White Magic, is a synthetically manufactured stimulant of the amphetamine and cathinone category. Until the early 2010s, the drug was not included in the list of contrabands under the NDPS Act.
However, multiple seizures of large quantities of the drug and rising instances of its consumption as a narcotic in large cities, prompted authorities to include it in the list in 2015.
The use of Mephedrone is said to cause euphoria and stimulation among other effects is said to have similar effects as that of amphetamines and cocaine.
The police in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad have in the recent past conducted multiple seizures of Meow Meow suggesting that the contraband is among the highly used drugs in Pune and surrounding areas.
In April this year, the Anti-Narcotics Cell had seized around 1.1 kg of Meow Meow worth over Rs 2.2 crore and arrested two people and detained a minor.
In 2020, the probe by Pimpri Chinchwad police, following the seizure of Mephedrone worth Rs 20 crore, had unearthed a narcotic production and distribution ring.
The police found that drugs worth over Rs 130 crore were being produced at a manufacturing plant in the Ranjangaon area of Pune and the ring was operated by a criminal linked to the Chhota Rajan gang and also a Nigerian national among others.
