Mumbai police bust intl drug racket, two arrested

Mumbai, Jan 24 (PTI) Police today claimed to havebusted an international drugs racket with the arrest of twodrug traffickers hailing from Chennai and seized 74 kgEphedrine worth Rs 1.85 crore in international market.

Acting on a tip off, Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC)officials raided the room of a hotel in suburban Andheriyesterday and arrested Shahul Sadeeq (42) and Ganesh Subbayya(24) with the contraband, police said.

The accused had smartly concealed the drugs in thevacuum of tea thermoses and in the guise of exportingthermoses, they would smuggle Ephedrine to Bangkok andMalaysia.

The duo, who had frequently checked into hotels here,would smuggle the drugs to foreign countries via air transportfrom Mumbai and Bangalore with the help of their aides,Deputy Police Commissioner (ANC) Sunil Paraskar said.

According to police, Ganesh, who had pursued hotelmanagement and his aide Shahul had been smuggling the drugsfor the last seven to eight months.

Explaining modus operandi of the accused, Paraskarsaid, the duo would come to the city for a few days andcollect Ephedrine from their aide, who would deliver it tothem in a car.

"The duo would then take the contraband to a hotelroom and smartly conceal them in the vacuum of the teathermoses," Paraskar said.

Ten tea thermoses made of steal, a grilling machineand other material used to fill the drugs in the vacuum, threepassports, mobile phones, Rs 1500 in cash were recovered fromthem, the DCP said. .