Shipped from Africa in boxes
NEW DELHI: Mephedrone, a psychoactive drug that temporarily enhances mental and physical functions, is produced in bulk in the African sub-continent and is popular as meow-meow among party circles in Delhi.
The drug was being concealed in containers and loaded on ships and sent to Mumbai from Africa, an officer who busted the syndicate said.
“Once the drug was collected by members of the syndicate from the shores of Mumbai, it was divided in two shares. One part was meant to be sold to party goers in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh. The other was dispatched to countries like UAE, the United Kingdom, the USA, Malaysia and other Middleeastern countries,” said Sanjeev Yadav, DCP (special cell).
The drug meant to be sent to other countries were packed in small quantities and dispatched via courier, Yadav claimed, based on the interrogation of the arrested accused so far. The entire syndicate was monitored by two men, Kishan and Kailash Rajput, who live in UK and Dubai respectively. Kishan was identified as the kingpin of this syndicate.
Police said a team was already in place to crack down on syndicates pumping drugs in the Capital. In July last year, the team had nabbed nine people and seized 14 kilos of meowmeow in separate operations.
From collecting drugs from ships in Mumbai to dividing the product and distributing them, the syndicate had specific roles for every member.
The three arrested men, for example, were the Delhi-based agents of the drug racket and their task was to smuggle meow-meow to the Capital and sell them to distributors here.
Prepared from certain compounds found in the Khat plant in east Africa, Mephedrone, can be swallowed, snorted or injected by users.
Snorting is the most common way of consuming the drug and injecting the rarest, police said. The drug is sold in the form of tablets, capsules or white powder.