Gujarat ATS seizes drugs worth ₹800 crore; 4 arrested
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Wednesday said it carried out two significant raids in the state and neighbouring Maharashtra, seizing drugs worth more than Rs.800 crore.
Officials said that the team, during the raid, also arrested four individuals allegedly involved in the production and distribution of banned narcotic substances.
On August 5 and 6, the ATS team conducted a raid at a mephedrone manufacturing unit in Thane district, Maharashtra, and another at a pharmaceutical factory in the Dahej industrial area of Bharuch district, Gujarat, said officials. The operations were based on specific intelligence inputs and were executed with precision by the ATS teams.
According to the officials, a team of ATS raided an apartment in Thane’s Bhiwandi town and arrested two brothers—Mohammad Yunus Shaikh (41) and his brother Mohammad Adil Shaikh (34).
The duo were found with nearly 800 kilograms of liquid mephedrone (commonly known as MD) valued at Rs.800 crore in the international market, said ATS officials.
The ATS said that the duo had rented the apartment around eight months ago to manufacture mephedrone using various chemicals. Their initial attempt failed, but the subsequent batch was almost ready for conversion into powder form when the raid took place.
The ATS’s investigation into the Shaikh brothers’ activities began after a previous operation on July 18, when a mephedrone manufacturing unit in the Palsana area of Surat city was busted, during which the drugs and raw materials worth Rs.51.4 crore were seized, and three persons were arrested.
During interrogation, these individuals revealed that the Shaikh brothers were part of the drug cartel, leading to the successful raid in Bhiwandi, according to officials.
In the second operation, the ATS raided a pharmaceutical unit in Dahej GIDC and apprehended two individuals with liquid tramadol worth Rs.31 crore.
The arrested individuals were identified as Pankaj Rajput and Nikhil Kapuria. Rajput, who worked as the chief chemist at the factory, and Kapuria, the owner of a chemical trading firm, were found producing tramadol, an opioid pain medication classified as a psychotropic substance under the NDPS Act in 2018.
Investigations revealed that Kapuria had convinced Rajput to manufacture tramadol, sourcing raw materials from a firm in Ahmedabad owned by one Harshad Kukadiya. After preparing the liquid Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), they sent it to Kukadiya, who then transported it to a factory in Gandhinagar for tablet production, said ATS officials.
Efforts are underway to apprehend other individuals involved in this racket, said officials.
On July 29, the Customs department seized 6.8 million tramadol tablets worth Rs.110 crore from two export containers at Mundra port in Gujarat’s Kutch district.