Navi Mumbai: After a raid at Mahad last month, the Raigad Police have busted a similar illegal narcotics unit in Rajasthan, where raw materials used for manufacturing drugs were found concealed 10 feet beneath the ground. The action, carried out in Hathuniya village of Pratapgarh district, Rajasthan, is linked to the July 23 seizure of Ketamine worth Rs 88.92 crore from an industrial unit in Mahad MIDC.
"After our Mahad seizure we found links to the supply of raw materials to Raigad from Rajasthan. The accused in Rajasthan after they for to know of Mahad raid, hid the raw material 10 feet below the ground," Raigad Superintendent of Police, Anchal Dalal said.
The arrested accused from Rajasthan has been identified as Siddiq Firoz Khan (28), a resident of Hathuniya, Rajasthan. Police said Khan, upon learning of the Mahad raid, allegedly buried the consignment to evade detection.
A recovery team, aided by a JCB machine, exhumed the buried raw materials and seized samples for forensic analysis. "The raw materials seized were half burnt," investigating officer API Jeevan Mane from Mahad police station said.
The breakthrough came after API Mane interrogated four suspects already in custody in the Mahad case and verified technical data that confirmed the raw material of the drugs’ movement from Rajasthan. Police then formed multiple teams under the supervision of Raigad SP Dalal, Additional SP Abhijeet Shivthare, and PI Milind Khopde of the Local Crime Branch, Raigad, with assistance from the Anti-Narcotics Branch, Ahmedabad, and local Rajasthan police.
The case has been registered at Mahad MIDC Police Station under sections 8(c), 22(c), 25, 27(a), and 29 of the NDPS Act and Section 3(5) of BNS 2023.
“Recovering concealed narcotics across state lines is a challenging task, and the team’s precise coordination led to its success,” said Special Inspector General of Police (Konkan Range) Sanjay Darade, commending the officers involved.
Police said further investigations are underway to identify other members of the inter-state drug network and to trace the remaining supply routes.
