Two held, 21 kgs of charas Rs 83 lakh seized

The Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) of Mumbai police arrested two persons, including a resident of Kashmir, and seized 21 kgs of charas worth Rs 83.68 lakh, police said today.
The contraband was being transported from Kashmir to Mumbai to be distributed to local drug peddlers, they said.
The Worli unit of Anti Narcotics laid a trap at Nagpada in central Mumbai yesterday and apprehended Haji Abdul Rehman Ali Mohmad Sheikh (67) and Irfan Maisar Qureshi (42), an official said.
While Sheikh is a resident of Bijbehara in Anantnag district of Kashmir, Qureshi resides in Nagpada, an official said.
The ANC sleuths seized 15 kg and 660 grams of charas from Shaikh's possession and five kg and 260 grams of the banned material from Qureshi's taxi, he said.

"Sheikh is in the business since more than two decades and was arrested in 2010 with 39 kg of charas by Worli unit only," Ninad Sawant, senior police inspector of Worli Unit said.

He had been released on bail in 2014 and he again entered the narcotics business, he said.
"Sheikh used to send the contraband from Kashmir's Anantnag area by road and he himself used to come by train," he said.
After the contraband reached the outskirts of Mumbai, it used to be transported in Mumbai by Qureshi's taxi, following which Sheikh used to distribute it in the city, he added.

Further investigation is on.