Maharashtra: Drugs worth ₹250 crore seized from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, two arrested

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₹250 crore from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar from Maharashtra and arrested two persons, PTI reported Sunday. The recovery of the drugs – cocaine, mephedrone and ketamine – was made on Friday based on inputs from DRI’s Ahmedabad zonal unit and the crime branch there, PTI quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ahmedabad, Chaitanya Mandlik.

The crime branch of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, (formerly known as Aurangabad), also assisted in the operation that involved searches at two factories and residential premises, said the apex anti-smuggling agency said. During the searches, the DRI team recovered 23 kg of cocaine, about 2.9 kg of mephedrone and ₹30 lakh in cash from the house of one of the two accused, the report said A total of 4.5 kg of mephedrone, 4.3 Kg of ketamine and “another mixture of mephedrone" weighing about 9.3 kg were recovered from a factory named Mahalakshmi Industries in the Paithan MIDC area, the DRI added.

The DRI said the illicit market value of the drugs is more than ₹250 crore, adding that two persons, including the “key conspirator", have been arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The seizure comes amid a massive spat between the Eknath Shinde government and Maharashtra opposition following the recovery of drugs worth nearly ₹300 crore by the Mumbai police and the alleged high connections of one of the key accused, Lalit Patil.

While the Shiv Sena (UBT) has accused Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the Home portfolio in the Eknath Shinde government, of shielding the drug mafia in the state, the latter claimed that Patil was the Nashik chief of the undivided Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray. Patil had been arrested in 2020, when the Maha Vikas