In its ongoing operation against cracking down on drug peddlers, officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) have arrested two persons for peddling curated marijuana on Tuesday. NCB officials seized 310 grams of marijuana worth Rs 30 lakh from the accused.
The arrested accused have been identified as Ganesh Sakharam Shere & Siddhanth Amin. Shere, NCB officials claimed, aspired to be a police officer and had also given state level exams.
Sameer Wankhede, zonal director of NCB’s Mumbai Unit, said, “On Monday, NCB intercepted Shere and Amin at Parel Village, and seized 310 grams of curated hydroponic marijuana and cash worth Rs 1.50 lakh.”
In this case, the peddlers were distributing various strains of buds like Blackberry, Northern, Rainbow, Forbidden, etc. These curated buds are highly expensive and are imported from Europe, Canada and USA, added Wankhede.
"The accused would deliver curated marijuana to clients from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai just like we see food delivery persons. The drugs were being sent from abroad and distributed in the city," said an NCB official.
The accused were peddling curated marijuana at the instance of a man identified as Sahil Shah alias Flacko, a resident of Malad, who recently fled the city and is operating out of Dubai.
"We had conducted searches at Sahil's residence, and got his photograph and passport details. Sahil was in touch with two peddlers A Abbas and Karan Arora whom we had arrested in the Sushant Singh Rajput drug case," the officer said.
NCB officials claimed that Sahil used to work very discreetly. "None of the peddlers who work for Sahil know his real name, neither any of his peddlers have seen him. Peddlers have only heard his voice,” said Wankhede.
SEIZED CONTRABAND BY NCB |
Sahil would interact with peddlers over Internet calls. If he would want to speak to his peddlers regarding clients, Sahil would speak to the peddler over a video call and would ask the peddler to show the photograph of the client, added Wankhede. “Only if Sahil wished to deliver the contraband to the client, would he give a go ahead. At the time of video call with peddlers, Sahil would switch off his camera so that nobody could see him," said Wankhede.
Sahil procured drugs from abroad and would deliver it to his peddlers in Mumbai. He would then give locations to the peddlers from where the contraband had to be picked up.
“He hired smart peddlers and his clientele is also affluent. The peddlers would take orders from ten to fifteen clients in the morning and would then give them delivery throughout the day. The gang would make several lakhs a day by selling contraband. After the collection is made, Sahil would send his man to the peddlers to collect the money which would later be disposed. Apart from Rajput case, Sahil is wanted in three other cases of NCB. His last known location was Dubai, we are trying to find out where he is currently operating from."
NCB has been cracking down on drug peddlers since it started investigations into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput last year.
