Jails turn into recruitment spots for drug cartels, who are now are luring petty offenders, robbers and dacoits inside jails, with the bait of making a quick buck in quick time
Petty thief Haroon Mahida is arrested in a robbery case, sent to jail
The drug mafia is starting its recruitment process in the one place where all their activities eventually end up: jail.
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According to Shivdeep Lande, deputy commissioner of police, Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC), it has been found in a recent study that the drug cartels are luring petty offenders, robbers and dacoits inside jails, with the bait of making a quick buck in quick time.
ANC has also made three arrests since January, where the arrested accused's arc into drug peddling has begun from when they were serving time behind bars.
During his time there, he meets a drug peddler who asks him to join the business
"The petty offenders who are lodged in jail are desperately in need of cash to support their legal expenses. The cartel targets such criminals and makes use of them to carry the consignment from one place to another," said an officer from ANC.
The latest arrest came on Wednesday, when ANC officials arrested Haroon Rashid Noor Mohammad Mahida (41) following the recovery of half kilogram of Mephedrone (MD), also known as Meow Meow, worth Rs 10 lakh. Cops said Haroon was supposed to get around Rs 1 lakh from the deal.
After serving 8 years in jail, Haroon applies for bail and is let out
Petty robber turns peddler
Speaking to mid-day, Ninadh Swant, ANC inspector from the Worli unit said, "Haroon was robbing people of cash in South Mumbai from 2002 to 2004. In 2004, he was arrested by the Crime Branch in a robbery case and later convicted for 10 years. He was shifted to Nashik jail, where he spent eight years, and later applied for acquittal in the High Court, ultimately getting out on bail."
According to ANC sources, when Haroon was in jail, he met with a peddler who gave him the idea of making money in a short period of time by delivering drugs. Once he got out of jail, he acted on the advice and got into the business.
After getting out, he enters the drug peddling business
Supari purrs for Meow Meow
Before Haroon, ANC had arrested Mohammed Usman Supariwala (40) in March with 155 grams of MD worth Rs 3.15 lakh. Supariwala is a close relative of 1993 bomb blasts accused Yakub Memon and was caught when he came to deliver the drug to his associate in Dongri.
Cops said he was held for smuggling gold at the Hyderabad airport. Later, he served three months in jail and got bail. But soon after, he started peddling drugs. He had also met with a drug case accused in jail and later became a part of the peddling business.
He's nabbed while making a R10-lakh MD deal. Illustration/Ravi Jadhav
Snuffing out the regular
In another case in January, ANC arrested Lalsingh Chand alias Suraj Nepali (24), who was actually an absconding criminal. Nepali was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 for gangraping a minor girl and recording the act in a cell phone in 2011. He'd jumped parole in August 2016. However, in an inquiry, the police got to know that Nepali befriended a woman, who was involved in the drug business and became a peddler himself.
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