12 hours Ago
Surat: Just over a week after a massive cocaine haul worth Rs 6,000 crore, the police seized mephedrone worth Rs 2.17 crore and raw material worth Rs 427 crore from another factory in Ankleshwar GIDC on Monday. The arrest of three people who came to deliver an MD consignment near Surat confirmed the specific information received by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) that the narcotics were being made in Avsar Enterprise in Ankleshwar.
Police arrested four people who were manufacturing MD in the factory and distributing the consignments. Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gahlaut told reporters that the DCB received a tip-off that a person named Vishal Patel , who was making MD in Avsar Enterprise, sent three people to deliver a consignment in Surat. "Based on this information, one team of DCB and Surat rural police caught Montu Patel, Virat Patel, and Vipul Patel near Rangila Chowkdi near Velanja village, some 20 km from the city.
We seized 2.031 kg of MD worth Rs 2.03 crore from them," Gahlaut said.
The second team raided Avsar Enterprise with the help of Bharuch Special Operations Group (SOG) and arrested the mastermind Vishal Patel. "Police seized 141 gm of MD worth Rs 14.10 lakh along with 427 kg of drugs in crystal and powder form, which is likely to be MD.
We have sent the samples for forensic testing," he said. Officials said that the factory is owned by one Anil Amin, who is currently in the US. He gave the factory operations to his relative Vishal, who turned it into an MD manufacturing unit.
Montu worked with the unit for the last two-and-a-half years. It must be noted that on Sept 20, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) issued a closure notice to the factory after inspection revealed that they were making "non-consented" products. Vishal and Montu started planning to make MD in February with the help of Virat and Vipul.
A major chunk of the produce was destined for Mumbai, where it is in high demand. "They sent two kg of MD to Mumbai. They also sent 2 kg of drugs to Surat-based peddler Palak.
Palak, who is on the run, has a wide network of traffickers in the city. We are confirming who all are in contact with Palak," Gahlaut said. Earlier, on Oct 12, the Delhi and Bharuch police had seized 518 kg of Colombian cocaine worth Rs 6,000 crore from a pharmaceutical company Avkar Drugs Pvt Ltd in Ankleshwar GIDC.
Vishal wanted to make quick bucks Vishal Patel, the mastermind of the drugs racket, decided to make MD to earn quick money. He started by making small quantities and sold them in the market to gauge the response. Seeing the demand spike, Vishal and others started producing it in bulk.
Police sources told TOI that they were planning to make a huge quantity from the 427 kg of raw material that was seized from them. As per the deal, Vishal would keep half the amount of the drugs sold in the market. Vishal is being interrogated by Bharuch police.
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