It began last year with a drug haul near Vapi in Gujarat and the arrest of a man identified simply as Mansukhbhai. Soon, Revenue Intelligence sleuths zeroed in on a luxury hotel overlooking Mumbai’s Juhu beach and started tracing international calls made from seven cellphone numbers. Then came the big swoop in Hyderabad this week. In the net: Dubai-based Mohan Malkani, top Dawood associate and a crucial link in one of South East Asia’s biggest drug networks. Thrilled by their success, investigators now believe that the arrest will cripple a major part of the drugs supply line on that route. Trapped in Hyderabad, alongwith Malkani, were Rs 100 crore worth of drugs and an expert in chemical formulations. Tracing the link from Mansukh to Malkani, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials say it was the former’s arrest that confirmed an emerging pattern in the drugs trade. ‘‘Small scale units are manufacturing raw materials or finished products such as methylenedioxmethamphetamine (MDMA), which are then being shipped to South Africa, a distribution hub for Europe,’’ say NCB sources. When Mansukh was arrested, he was on the verge of transporting 2.2 tonnes of MDMA to Dubai on a country-made vessel. The consignment was camouflaged as detergent and its eventual destination was South Africa. Mansukh was carrying out orders from Vicky Goswami, one of the main players in Dawood’s drug empire, who was held in Dubai in 1996 and is still serving a sentence. In fact, it was Goswami’s arrest which forced Dawood to leave the Gulf and shift base to Karachi. After Mansukh spilled the beans on Malkani, separate teams were deployed to track his movements. His secret office in a Juhu hotel was under close watch. DRI teams also found clues linking him to a unit called Limelight Drugs and Florence Labs on the outskirts of Hyderabad. It is believed that Malkani’s plans to buy a ship in Dubai had put the Interpol on his trail too. The Ecstasy trip
