On 16th October, the Mumbai Police busted a real-life ‘Breaking Bad’ in Mumbai after it raided a Mephedrone (contraband) manufacturing unit which was being operated by two Class 10 dropout brothers. The Police officials informed that it had arrested two brothers for allegedly operating a mephedrone manufacturing unit in Maharashtra’s Solapur district. The police officials stated that 8 kg of high-quality drugs and more than 50 kg of unprocessed contraband were seized from their premises.
An official said that they had arrested Rahul Kisan Gawali and his brother Atul in the western suburb of Khar on 14th October. They also recovered 5.09 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 10.17 crore from them.
Subsequently, the crime branch of the Mumbai police launched a follow-up operation and raided the manufacturing unit in Chincholi MIDC in Solapur district. In the manufacturing unit, they found that the duo had set up three laboratories, the official added.
During the raids, the police seized high-quality mephedrone worth Rs 16 crore, while the unprocessed drug is worth more than Rs 100 crore, as per the official. He added that from their premises, Police also recovered a diary from the premises which had formulas used to make the contraband.
It is important to note that Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant (a psychotropic substance) that has been banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. It is also known as ‘meow meow’ or MD, White Magic, M-Cat, and Drone.
According to the officials, both the Gawali brothers had failed Class 10 and had worked in a chemical factory for a few years. They, later, rented a space to set up laboratories on a 21,000 sq ft area, and for the past seven months, they have been operating the manufacturing unit.
The official added that the accused had come to Mumbai to distribute mephedrone a month ago and supplied it to local drug peddlers. He asserted that a probe is underway to identify their aides.
Earlier in 2016, the police from Thane city had raided another factory in the area from where they recovered drugs worth Rs 2,000 crore.
A few days back, on 13th October, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized around 200 Kg of Mephedrone from two locations in Pune.
Over the past few years, Mephedrone worth crores of rupees has been seized on multiple instances from different parts of Maharashtra indicating a larger menace of the contraband substances and its national security implications.
In August 2022, the Mumbai city police made one of the biggest seizures in Mumbai after it caught more than 700 kilograms of mephedrone worth Rs 1,400 crore during a raid at a drug manufacturing unit in Nalasopara, Palghar district.
