Express News Service
MUMBAI: It’s no secret anymore that Mumbai’s drug cartel is being peddled by the D-Company and that most of the Bollywood stars and strugglers are its high-paying clients.
“The D-company helmed by underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim suspected to be based in Pakistan runs this lucrative business. The D-Company buys raw drugs — opium, poppy and coca — from Afghanistan and Cambodia. After processing them into heroin, brown sugar, charas and cocaine, these drugs are smuggled into India via Punjab border and Gujarat ports, and land here in Mumbai,” said a senior officer from the Anti-Narcotics Cell of Mumbai Police.
After the drug consignment reaches Mumbai, it is handed over to the main dealer, sub-dealers and other local suppliers.
The drug suppliers mainly hide in the ghettos of Mira Road, Nalasopara and Dockyard Road of Mumbai and extended suburbs.
“The college-going students mostly take ganja and charas. Heroin and cocaine, the refined drugs — are sold at a very high price. Only the well-heeled people can afford them. Most of the Bollywood film stars and strugglers take either heroin or cocaine,” said the officer.
A highly-placed source in the Anti-Narcotics Cell said MDMA (also knows as Ecstasy) is in high demand for its said effects on sexual excitement.
“The MDMA is also used by Bollywood struggler girls. There is a myth that this drug can keep them slim and fit,” the source explained.
Earlier the MDMA used to be made in Mumbai and Palghar area only.
“However, following continuous high vigil and frequent raids, these makers shifted to Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Heroin is the highest quality and costliest drug that has been supplied by Cambodia and some South American countries,” added the source.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday arrested Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and seven others in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.
Besides Aryan Khan, the arrested accused are identified as Munmun Dhamecha, Arbaaz Merchant, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Sarika, and Vikrant Chhokar, an NCB official said.
Aryan Khan, Dhamecha, and Merchant were produced before a metropolitan magistrate’s court here earlier in the day which remanded them in NCB custody till October 4.
All the eight accused will be produced before the court on Monday after their medical examination, he added.
Aryan Khan has been booked under sections 27 (punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance), 8C (produce, manufacture, possess, sell or purchase of drugs) and other relevant provisions of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
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He and seven others were detained late Saturday night by NCB sleuths after they raided the cruise ship on its way from Mumbai to Goa.
As per the arrest memo of the NCB, 13 grams of cocaine, five gram of MD, 21 grams of charas and 22 pills of Ecstasy and Rs 1.33 lakh was seized after the raid.
Based on a tip-off that a party was scheduled on the ship, an NCB team, led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede, raided the Goa-bound ship on Saturday evening and recovered drugs from some of the passengers, an NCB official said.
“During the operation, the suspects were searched and different drugs were recovered from them, which they had hidden in their clothes, undergarments and purses (by women),” the NCB official said.
The cruise company in a statement on Sunday said it had nothing to do with this incident.
“Cordelia Cruises is in no way, directly or indirectly, connected to this incident. Cordelia Cruises had chartered its ship for a private event to a Delhi-based event management company,” Jurgen Bailom, Chief Executive Officer and President, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt Ltd said in the statement.
It said Cordelia Cruises is extending our full support and cooperating with the authorities.
(With PTI Inputs)