2 women among 10 held in Maharashtra police's month-long operation; mephedrone of Rs 13.61 cr seized

The operation began on April 4 when the police, acting on a tip-off, raided a residential premises in the Nayanagar area in Mira Road and seized 1.324 kilograms of mephedrone worth Rs 2.66 crore, under the supervision of senior inspector Pramod Badakh, Assistant Commissioner of Police Crime Madan Ballal said.

In a month-long operation, Maharashtra police have arrested 10 drug suppliers and peddlers, most of them from Mumbai, and seized from them mephedrone drugs valued at Rs 13.61 crore, officials said on Thursday. Two of the arrested accused are women, while one male accused is from Rajkot in Gujarat, they said. The action was carried out by Crime Branch (Unit IV) of the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar police, whose jurisdiction is spread across Thane and Palghar districts. ''The operation began on April 4 when the police, acting on a tip-off, raided a residential premises in the Nayanagar area (in Mira Road) and seized 1.324 kilograms of mephedrone worth Rs 2.66 crore, under the supervision of senior inspector Pramod Badakh,'' Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Madan Ballal said. During the raid, the police arrested Firdos Arbaz Qureshi, a resident of Mira Road (East). During her interrogation, she told the investigators that the contraband belonged to her husband Arbaz Vakil Qureshi, following which he was also arrested, he said. A case was registered against the duo under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Nayanagar police station. Senior inspector Badakh said the interrogation of the couple led to the arrest of eight more drug peddlers and seizure of additional quantities of mephedrone. ''A total of 6.773 kilograms of mephedrone, collectively valued at Rs 13,61,38,480, was seized during the entire operation,'' he said. The other accused arrested in the case were identified as Moij Javed Khan, Akash Yadav (both from Mumbai's Jogeshwari), Arman Ali Kalam Ali Rain, Sunil Yadav (both from Oshiwara in Mumbai), Mohammed Arafat Shamshuddin Ansari, Khalda Arafat Ansari (both from Byculla area of Mumbai), Mohammad Vasim Yusuf Sheikh (Mira Road in Thane) and Irfan Anwar Kudia (from Rajkot in Gujarat). Further investigation into the drug trafficking network was underway, police said.