Mumbai police bust major drug trafficking racket, arrest 2 gang members

The gang used to transport the drugs in tempos by concealing them between sacks of coconuts.

The Mumbai police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) has said it has busted a major interstate drug trafficking racket and seized 1,800 kilograms of marijuana worth ₹3.5 crore from two members of the gang. Police were looking for the mastermind and other key members of the racket.

The truck in which the consignment of Marijuana was found. (HT PHOTO)

Acting on specific intelligence, the ANC intercepted a truck at Vikroli, seized the marijuana. and arrested Akash Yadav, the driver of the vehicle, and one Dinesh Kumar Saroj. The truck was on its way to Bhiwandi to take the marijuana to a godown.

Milind Bharambhe, a joint police commissioner, said the racket is well-organised. "It would traffic the drugs in tempos by concealing them in between the sacks of coconuts." He said that the gang members would randomly hire a tempo from Bhiwandi, go to the bordering district of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh and send the driver of the tempo to stay in a hotel and meanwhile another driver would take the tempo further into Odisha and get the marijuana loaded.

The loaded vehicles would return to the hotel and then another driver would bring it back to Mumbai via Hyderabad, Solapur, and Pune.

"The syndicate heads would ensure that the drivers and middlemen used for trafficking the drugs do not get to know the source and destinations of the consignment and also what actually the consignment was," said Bharambhe.

He said the racket would bring 4,000 kilograms of marijuana every month to Mumbai from Odisha's Kandhamal, a Maoist-hit district. "Investigations so far have not established any link of the narcotics gang with the Naxalite groups."

The racket was also supplying marijuana to other groups in Solapur and Pune. Police suspect that the group might have been supplying drugs to the neighbouring states too.