Mumbai Police bust MD factory in Sangli, seize crores of rupees in cash

Unit VII officials with the seized cash. Pic/Rajesh Gupta

The Mumbai crime branch have busted a mephedrone factory in Sangli and seized Rs 3.46 crore cash from the residence of the main accused in what is emerging as an interstate drug production and distribution racket.

The raid was busted by the Unit VII of the Mumbai Police crime Branch on Friday. Unit VII officials started the probe with the arrest of a woman who was found to be in possession of 641 grams of mephedrone, and through her interrogation, arrested nine more accused, including Pravin Shinde, 37, from Bhiwandi.

"We seized the cash from Shinde's residence and went on to find out that he was looking after the production and sale of the mephedrone from the factory in Sangli for the last seven months. We raided the factory and believe that all the cash seized from Shinde's house was proceeds of the crime. We are looking into other property owned by Shinde to see if it is linked to the racket as well," said a Crime Branch officer.

Shinde, in his interrogation, has allegedly said that he received training in synthesising mephedrone in Varanasi. "After getting trained, he went to Sangli and set the factory up. He was responsible for coordinating the supply chain from Sangli to other parts of the state, including Mumbai," another officer said.

The police are now investigating to find out if there were any others behind Shinde who masterminded the racket. The police have so far seized 126 kilograms of mephedrone worth Rs 252 crore and 25 grams of gold worth Rs 1.50 lakh in their investigation and traced threads of the network to Mira Road and Gujarat.