In the biggest seizure of Ephedrine drug, the anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the Thane police discovered over 18.5 tonnes of the drug, worth over Rs 2,000 crore, in the godown of Avon Life Sciences Ltd, MIDC, Chincholi.

It was the arrest of a Nigerian from Thane on April 9 that led the ANC to the seizure. "This is the biggest drug seizure of Ephedrine till date," said Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh Singh.

The ANC arrested the Nigerian from the Mumbra-Panvel road with 500 grams of Ephedrine, and during the investigation, he disclosed the trail.

The cops learnt from him that, on April 12, two men -- Sagar Suresh Powale (28) from Raigad and Mayur Suresh Sukhdare (25) from Khalapur – were coming to Thane with over 3 kg of Ephedrine powder.

On Tuesday, the police arrested the duo who were in a white Maruti Swift car from opposite the Dr Kashinath Ghanekar auditorium. They confiscated 2 kg of Ephedrine powder from them. "The duo told the cops that a man named Swami from Solapur is their supplier," Singh said. "Hence, we sent two teams to Rasayani, Raigad and Solapur," he said.

The cops found Dhaneshwar Rajaram Swami (28) at Chincholi, MIDC, with 5.5 kg of the drug in his possession.

Swami told the police that Avon Life Sciences Ltd, MIDC, Chincholi, has an illegal stock of Ephedrine. The ANC team then detained senior production manager Rajendra Jagdambaprasad Dimri.

The cops found 7,600 kg of Ephedrine in his cabin and he confessed that the company has 9.5 tonnes of the drug in its godown.

When the police raided the company, they found over 18.5 tonnes of Ephedrine, worth over Rs 2,000 crore in the international market.