MUMBAI: The crime branch of Indore police has made three arrests in Mumbai in the record 70kg ecstasy seizure case of January 5.
Acting on a tipoff, the police nabbed Wasim alias Babuji alias Aslam Khan, 50, Ayyub Qureshi, 55, and an Indore resident identified only as Gaurav. Khan and Qureshi are Bandra residents.
While Khan was accused of involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and Qureshi is said to be an Abu Salem gang member, who had been arrested for the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar.
Earlier this month, Indore police had seized Rs 70 crore worth of MDMA or ecstasy while it was being smuggled to South Africa. A pharma factory owner from Hyderabad was among five persons nabbed. It is the largest haul of the party drug in the country.
Police set out to unravel the network and have since arrested 16 suspects, the last three from Mumbai.
Indore IG Harinarayanachari Mishra said Khan was arrested in the Gulshan Kumar murder case in 1998 and was released in 2001 after which he went to Nashik where he lived with Qureshi for five years. There, they met alleged drug dealer Raees Khan and got into the drugs trade.
Ashfaq, one of the suspects earlier arrested by Indore police, told interrogators that he was in contact with Qureshi. Investigators began gathering information on Qureshi and found that he had been arrested in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. Police had seized firearms and explosives from him after which he was locked up in Arthur Road jail for 32 months until he got bail in 1995. He went back to crime, was rearrested and ended up in Aurangabad jail. He was released in 2008, said the police.
Police said Qureshi owns a mutton shop in Bandra and came in contact with many drug smugglers who frequented his shop to purchase meat. According to police, Qureshi has admitted that he bought drugs from Ashfaq along with Dinesh Agarwal, who was among those arrested earlier.
Gaurav has also admitted to being in contact with Ashfaq and selling the drug, said the police.