Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Thursday night arrested Shadab Batata, son of Farooq Batata, the city's biggest drug supplier. NCB conducted raids in Lokhandwala, Versova and Mira Road areas last night. In these raids, large quantities of MDMA drug was recovered by NCB which is reportedly worth Rs 2 crore in the market. Also, NCB has also got hold of some very expensive vehicles owned by the Batatas.


Apart from MDMA (Ecstasy/Molly), the sleuths seized LSD, Ganja, Cocaine in significant quantities.


Reports say Farooq had a good network among high profile people consuming drugs. He has been supplying drugs to all the big-shot drug parties in Mumbai.


The NCB also recovered money counting machine during the raid.


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Who is Farooq Batata? 



  • Farooq Sheikh aka Farooq Batata. He is the father of Shadab who has been arrested.

  • Farooq used to sell potatoes before entering into the drug trade. That’s where his alias word ‘Batata’ comes from. (Batata is the Marathi word for potato) During that period, he came in contact with some people of the underworld and to this day he is the largest drugs supplier in Mumbai and both his sons have taken over the entire work of this drug trade. 

  • Shadab Batata has been associated with the drugs business for a long time and used to supply drugs to Bollywood celebrities of Mumbai. NCB had been looking for him since a long time.

  • With Shadab now arrested, the NCB is expected to get hold of a lot of people involved in the drug business. 

  • His arrest comes days after the NCB held a 19-year-old college student in Bandra area and seized drugs and cash worth Rs 2.30 lakh. The accused named as Ayan Sinha had also been supplying drugs to Bollywood celebrities and others living in the suburban areas of the capital city. 


The drugs angle linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death investigations have prompted the NCB and the police to conduct several raids to eliminate the menace that has allegedly plagued the Bollywood industry.