Ahmedabad: The issue of synthetic drug abuse has resurfaced in the city’s top educational institutions, with the recent arrests of two main suppliers, Badshah Khan and Faisal Khan, in the Dariapur area. Their arrests follow the earlier detentions of peddlers Matin Shaikh alias Khalu and Shahnawaz Pathan alias Anda near IIM Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

A senior official from the State Monitoring Cell (SMC) revealed that the arrests were based on information gathered from the interrogations of Shaikh and Anda.

The police nabbed Badshah and Faisal from their hideout. They confessed that Matin and Anda had been instructed to deliver 55 grams of Mephedrone worth Rs 5,50,300 to another individual. According to police, this person may be the key link to customers, who are primarily students from prominent educational institutions.

It is learned that the police have reliable intelligence about drug distribution to students and have devised a strategy to address the issue.

Badshah and Faisal were presented in the Additional Chief Metropolitan Court at GheeKanta, where the court granted five-day police custody for further questioning. The initial interrogation revealed that the accused were sourcing synthetic drugs from Mumbai and selling them to students of some leading institutes.

SMC officials stated that Matin and Anda, who were nabbed near IIM Ahmedabad, were merely couriers tasked with delivering drugs to another individual who distributes them to students in top colleges across Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Working as part of a three-layered network, the delivery person remains unaware of the identities of suppliers and peddlers.

Following these recent arrests, the SMC has initiated a large-scale crackdown on drug networks operating around educational campuses. Sources suggest that more names linked to student networks and specific campuses may soon be exposed. DeshGujarat