Narcotics supply from Surat continues: Youth caught while going to sell pills & bottles

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Despite continuous action against drug dealers, the sale of narcotic tablets and syrup bottles in the city continues unchecked.

A suspect named Syed Azhar Syed Akbar (Chandmari, Cantonment), who had escaped from the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) at Nagarnaka five days ago, was arrested by the team on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Taufiq Rashid Ali (24, Chandmari, Kashmir Mohalla, Cantonment), a member of Azhar's gang who had arrived near the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) premises on Monday night to sell a stock of tablets and syrup, was also caught by the police.

Police Inspector ANTF Geeta Bagwade received information that a youth was coming near the GMCH premises to deliver narcotic substances to a peddler.

Bagwade and Assistant Police Inspector Deepali Patil laid a trap in the area. When the suspect arrived on a moped at 1 AM and was apprehended, he was identified as Taufiq Ali.

His bag contained 240 strips of tablets with 10 tablets each (totalling 2,400 tablets) along with 14 bottles of syrup.

After a case was registered against him at Begumpura Police Station, he was arrested. The operation was carried out under the guidance of Deputy Superintendent Sainath Thombare, by constables Nitin Jadhav, Ravindra Salve, Kailash Gadekar, Harish Munde, Atul Tupe, Rahul Kale, Jyoti Kirtikar, and Amrapali Suryavanshi.

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Gang of 15 active members

Syed Azhar (25), the brother of previously convicted criminal Andha Firoz, had fled on Saturday morning after seeing police at Nagarnaka while he was stepping off a travel vehicle, abandoning a stock of 2,000 tablets and 118 bottles of syrup.

He was arrested by the team on Tuesday. Investigation also revealed that Andha Firoz runs a gang of approximately 15 young men in their thirties from the surrounding area.

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Surat connection Again

Syed Azhar had returned to the city on Saturday. Two days before his return, Taufiq had travelled to Surat, purchased the stock, and brought it back to the city. Names of Gujarat-based cities have repeatedly surfaced in previous drug trafficking cases caught in the city.