Three persons accused of distributing synthetic drugs for rave parties in private resorts and luxury hotels in the city were arrested by the Excise here with 7.50 grams of MDMA on Wednesday.
The arrested are Salahudheen O.M., 35, of Padamugal, Ameer Abdul Khadar, 27, of Palakkad, and Arfas Shereed, 27, of Kottayam. Officials also seized ₹1.05 lakh, allegedly earned through the sale of drugs, and three smartphones from the accused. A joint operation by the special action team of Enforcement Assistant Commissioner, Excise Ernakulam Intelligence Bureau, and Ernakulam and Angamaly range Excise teams led to the arrest and seizure.
The racket used to allegedly distribute drug by the code name ‘disco biscuit.’ They used to move around in clients’ own vehicles and that too only during nights for delivering drugs, said Excise officials. Salahudheen, the officials said, with many criminal cases against him was the kingpin who used to arrange drugs at rave parties.
The Excise Intelligence had reported that the group used to source drugs mainly from Bengaluru and Mangaluru. A woman who was arrested recently had given hints about the group though their details were not known. The accused used to spend daytime in rooms hired online in different names while not staying at one place for not more than a couple of days, officials said.
The Excise got more information about the gang after one of their intermediaries was nabbed recently. They were under surveillance ever since the Excise got a tip-off that they had gone to Bengaluru to take delivery of drugs ordered in advance allegedly for a rave party. They were nabbed when they alighted at the Ernakulam Town railway station on Tuesday around 1 a.m.
They had unsuccessfully tried to give the Excise team the slip by attempting to flee through the foot overbridge. They were taken into custody with the help of the Railway Protection Force. They were later produced in court and remanded.
Excise Intelligence Bureau inspector S. Manoj Kumar, Ernakulam range inspector Gireesh Kumar, Angamaly range inspector Sijo Varghese, Intelligence Bureau preventive officers N.G. Ajith Kumar, Shyam Mohan and Vipin Babu, and city metro shadow team civil Excise officers N.D. Tomy, D.J. Biju, P. Padmagireeshan, and Vipin Das made the arrest.
