Mumbai crime branch

Phoenix Rajaiyaa

BTech graduate

college dropout

marijuana seeds

LSD and ecstasy pills

Phoenix Rajaiyaa, Jitesh Koli and Nikhil Sharma allegedly limited their business to their circle of friends

Three friends from Chembur, who were arrested in December last year on charges of growing marijuana in a home, were allegedly sent different kinds of drugs stashed in animal feed from some African and European countries as well as Australia.Sandwiched among cat, fish and dog food, the drugs went undetected at the airport and were delivered to them via India Post.Thesaid, a, and Nikhil Sharma, an engineering, contacted suppliers ofon the dark net, paid for the drugs in Bitcoins, and set up a tiny weed farm at a home of a friend, Jitesh Koli, in a chawl. They allegedly peddled the drugs in the city.Ashok Khot, senior inspector of the crime branch, NM Joshi Marg unit, said Rajaiyaa worked with some private companies for a while before switching over to the narcotics trade two years ago. “He was responsible for ordering the drugs,” said Khot.Initially, Rajaiyaa and Sharma allegedly stuck to only LSD and ecstasy. Emboldened by having escaped unnoticed, they decided to grow their own weed farm and sell the drug among friends, said sources.They procured marijuana seeds and grew them hydroponically (where weed is grown without soil to hold the roots and a water-based and nutrient-rich solution is used instead) in a chawl tenement owned by Koli, an MBA graduate. The three installed airconditioners, hydroponic tents and LED lights to grow their marijuana.The high-quality marijuana went for a premium; it had a four-fold going rate of Rs 2,000 per 10 gm.The police caught up with them in December after they found Sharma “loitering in a suspicious manner” outside the chawl. They seized around 1kg of weed from him.Koli was traced to Goa, where he was caught with over 100 LSD strips and 40 gm ecstasy pills, said Nitin Patil, crime branch inspector.