Man held in 1st LSD seizure in city in 2 yrs

“We had information that a man selling LSD would come to a bus stop on Carter Road at 12.40 pm on Sunday. The information proved to be accurate. We found 40 LSD dots worth Rs 60,000 in Shaikh’s possession,” Satish Raorane, senior inspector with Bandra unit of the ANC, said.

The LSD allegedly seized from Shaikh possession is a small strip of paper containing 40 units, the police said. “It looks just like the patch of paper used by doctors to stem blood flow after administering an injection,” said Namdeo Chavan, Deputy Commissioner of Police, ANC.

Shaikh was charged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act for possessing a commercial quantity of the drug and later remanded to police custody by a local court till Wednesday.

Shaikh lives near Bandra Talao, where his father runs a tailoring shop. “He is a school dropout and is unemployed. He appears to have been selling drugs for a considerable period of time because he knows how and where to attract customers,” Raorane said.

The police are now probing where Shaikh sourced the LSD from and who his customers were.

Sunday’s catch is only the second in Mumbai in two years, the last seizure being in Worli in 2012. “It is very difficult to obtain credible information on LSD. We had information of another transaction a month ago, but the trap did not materialise. Unlike other drugs, it is very hard to detect LSD,” Chavan said.

Raorane said drug dealers were able to hide LSD from law enforcement authorities because of the simplicity in carrying it around. “LSD weighs nothing at all, and papers containing buttons can be concealed anywhere. We can smell when someone is smoking ganja. But LSD has no smell. Also, persons under its influence do not display any immediate signs,” he said.

srinath.rao@expressindia.com