Mumbai: Two arrested with mephedrone worth Rs 51 lakh

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Mumbai Police have arrested two men with party drug mephedrone worth nearly Rs 51 lakh from a western suburb of the metropolis on Thursday, an official told news agency PTI.

According to PTI, the Bandra unit of the crime branch's anti-narcotics cell (ANC) intercepted two persons at Santosh Nagar in Goregaon East during patrolling in the early hours.

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During a search, ANC officials recovered 255 grams of mephedrone, also popular as 'meow meow', worth nearly Rs 51 lakh from the two, the official said.

The duo told the police that they were trying to sell the contraband to their customers in the city and its suburbs, he said.

Both were placed under arrest after police registered a case against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he added.

Earlier, police had recovered mephedrone (MD) drug worth around Rs 31 lakh in Mumbai and arrested a man for allegedly possessing it.

The operation was conducted on May 25 night, an official told PTI.

"During patrolling, the personnel of Mumbai police's crime branch unit four spotted the accused, Raees Hakim Sayyed, moving in a suspicious manner near a bus stop in Sion area of the city. When the police team frisked him, they found him possessing 58 grams of MD drug," he told PTI.

The police team then took the 53 year-old drug peddler to his residence in Chunabhatti, where they recovered another 100 grams of MD along with a weighing machine and packing material. The drug recovered from him is collectively worth around Rs 31 lakh, the official said.

The accused was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he said, adding that more persons are likely to be held in this connection.

On May 26, drugs worth over Rs 1,500 crore were destroyed by the Customs department at an incineration facility in Mumbai.

An official told PTI that the Mumbai Customs Zone-III burnt down the narcotic substances at the Mumbai Waste Management Limited at Taloja in Navi Mumbai.

The destroyed drugs included 9 kg of high-purity cocaine and 198 kg of methamphetamine (meth) which were seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, from a fruit consignment in October 2022, the official said.

This was one of the biggest seizures of cocaine and methamphetamine and would have fetched Rs 1,476 crore in the illicit drug market, he said. Party drug MDMA, mandrax and ganja seized in various parts of Mumbai and its neighbouring areas were also destroyed, he said.

(With inputs from PTI)