Foreign national held from Mumbai in Rs 3,676-crore drug seizure case

PUNE: A woman foreign national was arrested from Mumbai on Wednesday evening in the Rs3,676-crore mephedrone drug seizures, affected in Pune and other cities in Feb this year.
“We have arrested Cynthia Ugababang Onyekpe (32). She hails from an African country and resides in Pisoli. She has been involved in drug peddling in Pune and Mumbai. The woman has destroyed her passport and visa.We are now verifying her nationality,” additional commissioner of police (crime) Shailesh Balkawade told TOI.
The woman’s name cropped up during the interrogation of Shoeb Saeed Shaikh (34), an alleged drug peddler from Kondhwa, arrested earlier in the case. He had told the police that Cynthia had procured mephedrone (MD) parcels from him in eight transactions for distribution to clients in Mumbai.
The latest police action takes the total number of arrests in the case to 14. The police are searching for four to five more suspects wanted in the case. “We have identified 50 drug peddlers operating from different places in the state. They had come in contact with the MD drug racket,” Balkawade said.
Those arrested so far in the case include pharma plant Earth Chem Pvt Limited owner Bhimaji alias Anil Parshuram Sable (45) and chemical expert Yuvraj Baban Bhujbal. The latter assisted Sable in setting up the MD processing unit. The police had since focused their investigation on the drug peddlers involved in the distribution of MD.
The Pune police had seized a total of 1,838kg of MD, valued at Rs3,676 crore, from storage facilities at Vishrantwadi in the city, a pharmaceuticals plant at Kurkumbh, off the Pune-Solapur highway, Sangli and New Delhi between Feb 19 and 21 this year.
Sandeep Dhuney, a London-based person of Indian origin (PIO), has been identified as the mastermind of the drug racket. He has been accused of having placed an order for 1,800kg of MD with the other co-accused in Oct last year. Balkawade said, “A look out circular (LOC) has been issued against Dhuney and his aide in Delhi, looking after his drug racket there.”
In 2016, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had arrested Dhuney in a drug haul in Pune. He was then lodged in the Yerawada central prison. “With the help of some inmates there, he managed to form a fresh group. He resumed his drug peddling activity after securing bail in the 2016 case,” a senior police officer said.
“Dhuney came in contact with the Vishrantwadi storage facility owner, then lodged in jail in a murder case. He later established contact with a Mumbai resident, who is now wanted, and chemical expert Bhujbal. The Mumbai resident and Bhujbal helped him develop contact with pharma plant owner Sable. Then the plot to start an MD processing unit was firmed up,” the officer said.