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Mumbai, Oct 10 (IANS) In a powerful strike on Mumbai’s clandestine underworld, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has dismantled a sophisticated drug syndicate, seizing unaccounted cash worth Rs 42 lakh, luxury BMWs and busting a maze of shell companies allegedly worth over Rs 100 crore in drug proceeds.
The raids, conducted on October 8 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, targeted nine key locations across the city, revealing a multi-layered operation that blended street-level trafficking with international hawala rackets.
At the center of this crackdown are Faisal Javed Shaikh and his wife Alfia Faisal Shaikh, a notorious couple accused of leading the distribution of MDMA – commonly known as Ecstasy – sourced directly from notorious drug lord Salim Dowla, the agency said in a statement.
The pair, along with associates Ashiq Waris Ali and Nasir Khan, allegedly turned Mumbai’s nightlife into a lucrative black market, trafficking synthetic stimulants and selling them to high-society partygoers and underground networks. Faisal, a serial offender, had briefly tasted freedom after getting bail in an earlier case, but was immediately arrested under the stringent Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act for violating the conditions and resuming his illicit trade.
ED sleuths, acting on intelligence from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), conducted the raid with surgical precision.
The haul was staggering; Stacks of currency notes worth Rs 42 lakh hidden in undisclosed safes, three pre-owned luxury sedans – including two BMWs – believed to have been “gifted” through anonymous deals, and a digital gold mine of encrypted phones, laptops and forged ledgers. A group of accounts with suspicious flows as well as a bank locker were immediately frozen. Property deeds pointing to lavish acquisitions in suburban enclaves further painted a picture of prosperous excess financed by misery.
But the real shock came from financial forensics. Investigators peeled back layers of deception and uncovered a syndicate of ghost companies – with zero employees but fake businesses worth billions. These entities arranged outbound remittances to secret offshore accounts, potentially diverting drug dollars through trade-based laundering and “hawala corridors” extending to the Middle East and beyond.
The investigation, an extension of the NCB’s ongoing FIR, traces the “back and forth relations” of the syndicate – from raw sourcing in secret laboratories to end-user sales in Mumbai’s throbbing clubs. Now a reward is being offered for tips that lead to Faisal’s recapture, as authorities warn of deep ties to international cartels. However, critics question whether this is mere window dressing or a real dent in India’s narco-economy, which takes thousands of lives every year due to drugs and violence.
As forensic accountants examine terabytes of data, the ED vows a continued search. Seized assets face temporary attachment, can be prosecuted under the stringent PMLA – up to 10 years in jail and property can be confiscated.
–IANS
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