MD seizure: Accused hid drugs in toilets; sixth held

Two days after the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested a sixth accused, Sardar Patil, 28, in connection with the seizure of 129 kilograms of Mephedrone (MD), police sources said the accused mainly operated from Navi Mumbai, but stored the drugs in Mumbai's public toilets. This information emerged during the interrogation of the arrested five accused. ATS officials also recovered 2.6kg MD from Mumbai.

On September 10, in a massive drug seizure, the Maharashtra ATS had arrested five people -- Abdul Razzaque Qadar Shaikh, 47, Irfan Badar Shaikh, 43, Suleiman Shaikh, 28, Jitendra Parmar, 41, and Naresh Mhaskar, 42 -and seized 129kg MD worth over Rs 51 crore, along with Rs 1.04 crore in cash. Interrogation of the accused also revealed the link of some of the conservancy staff with the arrested accused, which police found puzzling.

After this huge seizure, police strengthened their vigil on the drug dealers, who revealed they had stored the drugs in public toilets at Bandra. "Since there is hardly any vigilance in the bylanes of slums, the peddlers chose the public toilets as a way to carry out the drug trade. When we raided the public toilet, we found 2.6kg MD worth over Rs 10 lakh," said a senior ATS official.

Even as the drug seizure was unfolding, the sixth accused, Sardar Patil, a BSc graduate in Chemistry was arrested on Sunday. Investigation revealed, Patil often visited Mumbai and knew how to make good quality MD, said an official.

Police said the sophisticated laboratory equipment was used to manufacture the drug, suspected to be of prime quality at a Panvel lab in a closed factory.