Mumbai: Peddlers fooling addicts by selling medicines, other drugs as meow meow

The ANCs crackdown on MD has cut down the flow of the drug into the city by 90 per cent PicTHINKSTOCKWhile the police have been consistently cracking down on those running Mephedrone MD MCat meow meow rackets the dealers have only cracked on with new ways to peddle their wares With decreased supply the prices for the drug have shot up and peddlers are now fleecing new addicts by selling them medicines like paracetamol triprolidine and seasoning like ajinomoto often mixed with or instead of the real dealThe crackdown on Mephedrone MD or meow meow drug rackets has cut down its flow into the city thus resulting in an increased demand for the drug The sudden cut has also led to a rise in the price of the drug in the open market that has gone from Rs 700 per gram to Rs 8000 per gram This is more than the market price for cocaine which is sold between Rs 6000 to Rs 7000 per gramPouncing on the opportunity the peddlers especially the Nigerian nationals have started fleecing new addicts by selling them paracetamol triprolidine and ajinomoto in the name of meow meow This new tactic came to light after the AntiNarcotics Cell ANC came across a few instances of such dealings ANC officers told middayThis new tactic for selling MD came to light after the AntiNarcotics Cell ANC came across a few instances of such dealings PIC FOR REPRESENTATIONTHINKSTOCKFleecing new addictsSince the flow of MD in the city has been cut down to 90 per cent after recent major crackdowns on drug producers and distributors its demand has risen in local markets The price for MD has jumped from Rs 700 per gram to Rs 8000 per gram said Shivdeep Lande deputy commissioner of police ANCAnd because peddlers are not being supplied with MD they have started selling adulterated drugs and paracetamol triprolidine and ajinomoto in the name of meow meow to the new addicts generally the school students and collegians Peddlers are succeeding in fleecing new addicts as they cant differentiate between the original pure drugs and any other substance labelled as drugs added Lande saying that after making the sale the peddlers changed their place of operationCrack impactAccording to the officers the recent crackdown on factories producing MD has impacted its flow in the city very effectively In May ANCs Azad Maidan unit arrested Harish Chandra Nanasaheb Dorge the owner of an MD factory in Punes Daund area while he was trying to sneak into the city with eight kg of MD worth Rs 16 crore They later busted his factoryAlso read Mumbai College kids turn informants to take down drug peddlersSources said Dorges arrest sent a strong message in the drug market that the police were after the big fish and wouldnt spare the drug producers as well as the businessmen who unlawfully supply chemicals used for making MDOne of the major drug suppliers who used to supply the ingredient chemicals to drug producers had escaped to Bangkok fearing strict action from the police Because of this the flow of raw material to the drug producers started drying up ultimately affecting production said an ANC officerAlso read Mumbai Crime Cops fight off a mob to arrest Nigerian drug peddlerThe police also believe that the demand for cocaine and other drugs like charas has also increased because the supply of MD has been affected But the Narcotics Control Bureaus crackdown on cocaine traffickers linked to international rackets has affected that drugs flow in the open market as wellAlso read Mumbai police arrest 29yearold in family business of drug peddlingNo one willing to sell MDANC officers claimed that in the last six months the police have taken action on 18 big MD distributors All of them are in jail and did not get bail as a strong case was prepared against them Because of this action drug distributors now fear to deal in big quantities This revelation came after ANC sent its decoy for a drug deal but the distributor refused to deal for a big amount another ANC officer said