Acting on a credible information, the Anti Narcotics Cell’s (ANC) Bandra unit arrested two drug suppliers namely Rajesh Joshi (50), and Krushnamurti Kawander (42) who are believed to be involved in about 80 per cent of heroin supply in the city.
Police Inspector Anil Wadhwane attached to ANC’s Bandra unit laid a trap and arrested the duo from Malad railway station and seized heroin worth Rs 12 crore from both the accused. At the time of the arrest, Joshi was found in possession of four kg of heroin worth Rs 8 crore while Kawander was carrying 2 kg heroin worth Rs 4 crore.
“Their arrest is going to have a major impact on the flow of narcotics across the city, as the cartel was behind 80 per cent of drug supply, especially heroin,” said Shivdeep Lande, Deputy Commissioner of Police, ANC.
Talking about the modus operandi, the duo would follow is that they would get the consignment from bordering areas of Rajasthan which would be supplied to their bosses in southern parts of India. Later from there, the consignment would be distributed to important cities across the country. Joshi and Kawander would receive the consignments in Mumbai,” Lande informed.
“Joshi and Kawander had built safe places in slum areas of Mumbai. Within 10 minutes of receiving the consignment, they would hand it over to second point person. The second point person would then distribute the contraband to small distributors in 100 or 200-gram packets. The small distributors are mostly drug-addict youngsters who would get paid for the job. Their job would be to supply the drugs in small quantities in their respective areas,” an officer said.
As per the data provided by the ANC, as many as 3,280 drug peddlers have been arrested in the last five years while drugs worth Rs 1,067 crore have been seized. However, in last three years, since Shivdeep Lande has taken over the Mumbai ANC, drugs worth Rs 1,059.82 crore have been seized by his team.
