NCB busts big drug racket, four of Pathan gang held
Those arrested include drug lord Parvez Khan, alias Chinku Pathan, grandson of former Mumbai underworld don Karim Lala.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has busted a big drug racket and arrested four members of the Pathan gang, including drug lord Parvez Khan, alias Chinku Pathan, grandson of former Mumbai underworld don Karim Lala, from Navi Mumbai. With this, NCB has unearthed a one-of-its-kind laboratory where Arif Bhujwala, Dawood Ibrahim’s gang associate and partner of druglord Chinku Pathan, used to manufacture synthetic drugs like mephedrone, methamphetamine and ephedrine. However, he managed to run soon after Pathan was arrested before NCB could nab him. The NCB has launched a manhunt for Arif, sending lookout notice to all airports and ports to apprehend him if he tries to flee overseas.
After conducting raids at multiple places of Mumbai and neighbouring districts since the past three days, the NCB recovered 12 kg drugs and cash running into crores. Apart from that, the agency also found two pistols and a diary. The evidence and diary had lists of major drug suppliers, several code words and financial details of the ill-gotten money, indicating that the gang earned Rs 50-80 lakh per day through the drug cartel. NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede said, “During the raid, the NCB recovered massive quantities of illicit drugs—5.69 kg of mephedrone/md, 1 kg methamphetamine and 6.126 kg of ephedrine, apart from a huge stash of packing materials, various utensils, weighing machines and other apparatus used to manufacture illegal drugs. A clandestine drug laboratory operated by Arif Bhujwala in the same Noor Manzil building on the fourth floor was also busted. The NCB also recovered a revolver and unaccounted cash from the laboratory.”
NCB officials said that the gang members who were earlier into smuggling of gold, later shifted focus to drugs and over the decades have been smuggling traditional narcotic drugs. Over the past 4-5 years, the syndicate got into manufacturing synthetic drugs and supplied these to Middle East countries and South Eastern countries. According to the sources, Bhujwala and Pathan are directly associated with the drug network run from the Middle East by fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anees. They have links with anti-national elements, too, and the drug money is being laundered to Middle East countries and South Eastern countries, for which agency will contact other agencies like Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department and provide them disclosure regarding the seizure and findings of the investigation. The packets found at the Navi Munbai residence of Pathan and also packets containing drugs found at the Arif Bhujwalas drug laboratory had labels of a Middle East sugar brand. Raids revealed that these gang members used to keep drugs in food packets like sugar packets, salt packets and some in aata (flour) packets. To probe international links, the NCB will now launch an investigation abroad in coordination with agencies of the respective countries and Interpol.
Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede conducted raids in the Dongri den of the druglord. South Mumbai’s Dongri, once known as a place for the underworld mafia, had stronghold of Dawood Ibrahim gang members. Chinku, who also has his original residence here revealed information regarding his partner and gang member Arif Bhujwala and his laboratory at Dongri. A team of NCB officers from Mumbai Zonal Unit headed by Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede conducted raid at Arif Bhujwala’s residence at Noor Manzil Building, Jail Road South, Dongri Mumbai. Bhujwala ran the drug laboratory there only at a residential flat where sythetic drugs like Mephedrone, Methamphetamine and Ephedrine were manufactured. Bhujwala owned four flats on the fifth floor of the building and one flat on the fourth floor where he ran the laboratory. Bhujwala fled from his fifth floor flat through the scaffolding put on the building for the ongoing repairs in the building as NCB officials reached the building premises on Wednesday evening post Pathans’ arrest.
After Mumbai suburban areas, now the NCB is eyeing the South Mumbai drug nexus and other big traffickers. Chinku Pathan and Arif Bhujwala are said to be kingpins in drug trafficking networks operated by the underworld and ran their illegal trade across Mumbai and Maharashtra. The cartel is said to be responsible for 70% of the illicit drugs sold in Mumbai and Maharashtra. Apart from this crackdown on several other Pathan members, people related to them who financed them or supplied them drugs in a big way, are being probed by the NCB. Raids are still on at various places. Meanwhile, the NCB is also on the lookout for the four other key members of Chinku Pathan’s drug cartel, apart from the helpers.