Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
Two days after arresting five persons for stocking thousands of intoxicant bottles and planning to sell them at double the price, the crime branch on Friday paraded the accused through Kiradpura and Jinsi to send a strong warning to drug peddlers and addicts.
In five operations over the past nine days, police have arrested 16 persons linked to narcotics trafficking. Investigations revealed that city-based accused Ashpak Shaikh was the main trafficker in a racket operating from Latur and Udgir to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. After his associates from Latur were arrested, Ashpak allegedly fled overnight. He is suspected to have escaped out of Maharashtra and may be moving between Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. On Wednesday, police arrested Obedullah Abdullah (32), a Kiradpura resident, who allegedly procured cough syrups from Gujarat using the licence of a closed medical store and sold them locally. Around 3,000 bottles of intoxicant substances were seized from his residence. His associates Shaikh Sofiyan (34, Baiyajipura), Abdul Navid Khan Abdul Sami Khan (31, Jinsi), Sheikh Naved Sheikh Hamid (25, Labour Colony) and Sheikh Ayyaz alias Sheru Sheikh Siraj (42, Kille Ark) were also arrested. Ashpak had earlier been arrested in an arms trafficking case by City Chowk police and has multiple drug-related cases registered against him. The search for him and other associates is ongoing.