Mumbai : In one of the biggest drug hauls ever made in the country, the Thane Police have seized 18.5 tonnes of the drug ‘Ephidrine’ which was being produced in a factory at Sholapur to be sold in the international market.
According to Thane Police Commissioner, Parambir Singh, they had first apprehended a Nigerian from Thane area and recovered about half a kilo of this drug from him. Following inquiries, the police then arrested two other persons – Sagar Powle (28) and Mayur Sukhdare (25) and got two more kilos of this drug from them.
However, the major breakthrough for the police came when further investigations revealed that this drug was being supplied to them by a person by the name of Gyaneshwar Swami who was from Sholapur, Singh said. “After arresting Swami we got the information that this drug was being manufactured at a major scale in a factory at Sholapur and we immediately sent a team to this place,” he revealed.
Another officer, assistant police commissioner, Bharat Shelke said the team went to the factory in Sholapur and discovered a huge stock of the Ephidrine drug which had been kept there without any license, the officer said. Factory manager Rajendra Demre has been arrested in the case and police have already sealed the factory and the drugs contained in it. The 18.5 tonne drug haul is estimated to cost Rs 1500-2,000 cr in the international market.
“In the international market, this amount of drug is valued at Rs 1500-2000 crore and this is definitely one of the biggest hauls made in any part of the country,” Singh said. The Thane police have also contacted Gujarat police in this matter since some amount of drugs had also been seized recently from that state.
The officer said that while Ephidrine is itself used as a drug by several addicts, this substance is also used to make another drug called the `Meth Amphetamine’, also known as Ecstasy in the local market. “Initial inquiries have revealed that these drugs are sold in international markets like Poland and other Eastern European countries. This is a hallucination drug and is used by the addicts either through the intra-venous route or even through juices or ice cream, Singh said. The racket has been going on for the last one and half years and they are still carrying out further inquiries to find out the entire network of those involved in it, Singh said. In fact, they will also find out if any government officials were involved in this racket and appropriate action will be carried out if any such thing is revealed, he assured.
Singh said that the officers who were instrumental in busting this drug racket have already been honored by them and will receive the cash reward as per the norms. Earlier the police was focusing on locating drugs like cocaine and mephedrine, and now they will have to focus on this new trend of Ephidrine, he added. The police are also trying to find out where did the drug manufacturers plan to sell this in India.
