MUMBAI: After keeping a watch for three days in Shindegaon near Nashik, the city police and their Nashik counterparts raided a drugs manufacturing unit and seized 133kg of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, worth Rs 267 crore on Thursday night.
Together with the previous seizures leading up to the raid on the unit tucked away in a desolate spot, the total seized quantity of MDMA stood at 151kg and was estimated to be worth over Rs 300 crore.
The raid came about after the arrest of the caretaker of the unit, Jeeshan Shaikh (34), from his flat in Nashik Road near Shindegaon. Shaikh told the police the unit was owned by the brother of a drug mafia don named Lalit Patil.
An officer said Patil had even contested an election before his arrest by the Pune police in 2020. An accused in a drug trafficking case, Patil was first lodged in Yerawada Central Jail in Pune in October 2020. He was admitted to the Sassoon General Hospital and allegedly ran a drug cartel from there with the help of an aide and a canteen staffer.
Patil escaped from the hospital earlier this week after the anti-narcotic cell raided the hospital and arrested his aide and seized 1.71kg of MDMA worth Rs 2.14 crore.
The drug manufacturing unit in Shindegaon was busted two months after officials of the Saki Naka police station arrested three persons, Javed Khan (27), Asif Shaikh (30) and Iqbal Ali (30), from Dharavi with 1o grams of MDMA on August 8 following a tip-off received by constable Aditya Jadhav (35). “They provided details of eight more and, finally, the 12th accused was arrested from Nashik and he led us to the drug manufacturing unit,” DCP (zone X) Datta Nalawade said.
Nalawade supervised a team of senior inspector Gabaji Chimte, inspector Yogesh Shinde, assistant inspector Maitranand Khandare, sub-inspector Pankaj Pardeshi and others from the Saki Naka police station that took up the case from the first three arrests, when they learnt about supplier Arif Shaikh (42) in Hyderabad. The police seized 110 grams of MDMA from Arif, whose arrest led them to Naseer Shaikh (58) on August 20. Naseer told the police about Rehan Ansari and they seized 15kg of MDMA on August 23. Ansari told the police about the Shindegaon unit.
Together with the previous seizures leading up to the raid on the unit tucked away in a desolate spot, the total seized quantity of MDMA stood at 151kg and was estimated to be worth over Rs 300 crore.
The raid came about after the arrest of the caretaker of the unit, Jeeshan Shaikh (34), from his flat in Nashik Road near Shindegaon. Shaikh told the police the unit was owned by the brother of a drug mafia don named Lalit Patil.
An officer said Patil had even contested an election before his arrest by the Pune police in 2020. An accused in a drug trafficking case, Patil was first lodged in Yerawada Central Jail in Pune in October 2020. He was admitted to the Sassoon General Hospital and allegedly ran a drug cartel from there with the help of an aide and a canteen staffer.
Patil escaped from the hospital earlier this week after the anti-narcotic cell raided the hospital and arrested his aide and seized 1.71kg of MDMA worth Rs 2.14 crore.
The drug manufacturing unit in Shindegaon was busted two months after officials of the Saki Naka police station arrested three persons, Javed Khan (27), Asif Shaikh (30) and Iqbal Ali (30), from Dharavi with 1o grams of MDMA on August 8 following a tip-off received by constable Aditya Jadhav (35). “They provided details of eight more and, finally, the 12th accused was arrested from Nashik and he led us to the drug manufacturing unit,” DCP (zone X) Datta Nalawade said.
Nalawade supervised a team of senior inspector Gabaji Chimte, inspector Yogesh Shinde, assistant inspector Maitranand Khandare, sub-inspector Pankaj Pardeshi and others from the Saki Naka police station that took up the case from the first three arrests, when they learnt about supplier Arif Shaikh (42) in Hyderabad. The police seized 110 grams of MDMA from Arif, whose arrest led them to Naseer Shaikh (58) on August 20. Naseer told the police about Rehan Ansari and they seized 15kg of MDMA on August 23. Ansari told the police about the Shindegaon unit.
