Big mephedrone distributor arrested by Bandra ANC, supplied drugs to 20 peddlers in Mumbai’s suburbs

In a major breakthrough, the anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch arrested one of the biggest distributors of mephedrone, also known as meow-meow, in the city and seized one kilogram of the drug, worth Rs 20.10 lakh.

Sabir Hanif Khan, hailing from Jogeshwari (east), was arrested from Gilbert Hill, Andheri West by the ANC’s Bandra unit.

The unit, led by Assistant Police Inspector Vishal Khaire, were patrolling the area on Thursday when Khaire spotted Sabir with a bag near a BMC school.

Khan, who was carrying a bag, was behaving suspiciously following which he was searched and 1.005kg mephedrone, worth approximately Rs 20.10 lakh, was seized from him, said Shivdeep Lande, Deputy Commissioner of Police (ANC).

Khan is among the biggest distributors in Mumbai of mephedrone (a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes), Lande said.

Khan had been supplying the drugs to peddlers in Jogeshwari, Amboli, Oshiwara, Lokhandwala and Versova areas. More than 20 drug peddlers were working under Khan in the city’s western suburbs.

Officials said some of the peddlers working under Khan often used kids for transporting drugs and the mephedrone supplied by him eventually reached many college students and struggling actors.

A case had been registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and further probe was underway. He was produced in court on Friday and remanded in police custody till October 1.

The 32-year-old reportedly operated as a peddler in Nagpada and Dongri before branching out on his own a few years back.