Inter-state drug racket busted: One held from Kalina

The case came into light in November 2018, after the STF arrested two peddlers from Madhya Pradesh.

The Madhya Pradesh special task force (STF) busted an inter-state drug racket and arrested a 35-year-old man, Mohammad Ismail from Kalina, Santacruz, for allegedly supplying mephedrone to peddlers in different parts of the country.

The Madhya Pradesh special task force (STF) busted an inter-state drug racket and arrested a 35-year-old man, Mohammad Ismail from Kalina, Santacruz, for allegedly supplying mephedrone to peddlers in different parts of the country.

The case came into light in November 2018, after the STF arrested two peddlers from Madhya Pradesh. Ismail’s role in the case came to light after the police learned that peddlers had paid him Rs90,000 from a mobile app for the consignment. The MP STF officers then tracked him to Mumbai based on the details of the payment.

Archana Singh, the STF officer, who headed the case, told HT that Ismail is part of a larger drug supplying network, which they are probing now. With assistance from Vakola police, the MP STF officers discovered that Ismail is a Kalina resident.

“We laid a trap at several spots in Kalina, but it was difficult to nab him because we had his old photograph,” Singh said.

The team then received a tip-off that the accused lived in the Kalina Dongar area and was going to cast his vote in one of the booths on April 29 for the Lok Sabha elections. “There were three polling booths in the area, and we had kept our vigil outside all the three booths and then nabbed him from outside one of the booths,” Singh said.