Maharashtra Police Raids Drug Unit In Solapur, Arrests School Dropout Brothers With Mephedrone Worth Over Rs 100 Cr

Maharashtra police busted a major drug racket in Solapur district of Maharashtra, where they seized high-quality mephedrone worth over Rs 100 crore from a manufacturing unit run by two brothers. The accused, Rahul Gawali and Atul Gawali were arrested from Khar in Mumbai with 5.09 kg of the banned drug worth Rs 10.17 crore. 

Police raided the unit at Chincholi MIDC in Solapur, where they found three laboratories set up by the Gawali brothers in a 21,000 sq ft area. A police team also recovered a diary containing formulas used to make the synthetic stimulant, which is a psychotropic substance under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

According to police, the Gawali brothers, who had failed Class 10, had worked in a chemical factory for a few years before venturing into the illegal drug business. They had been operating the unit for the past seven months and had supplied mephedrone to local peddlers in Mumbai. The police are probing their network and associates.

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This is one of the biggest drug seizures in Maharashtra, where mephedrone worth crores of rupees have been confiscated from different parts of the state in the last year. In 2016, the Thane police raided another factory in the same area and recovered drugs worth Rs 2,000 crore. 

In September 2023, the NCB seized 200 kgs of mephedrone from two locations in Pune. In August 2022, the Mumbai police seized more than 700 kgs of mephedrone worth Rs 1,400 crore from a unit at Nalasopara in Palghar district.

(With PTI Inputs)

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