Satara: In one of its largest successes in recent times, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), dismantled a mobile mephedrone manufacturing unit in Maharashtra’s Satara district and seized drugs worth Rs 55 crore.
Five persons have been taken into custody in this connection, officials told PTI.
DRI officials conducted ‘Operation Sahyadri Checkmate’ in a remote village in the Karad tehsil, based on intelligence inputs and busted the racket, an official said.
A fully operational laboratory, equipped for mephedrone production was unearthed. It was camouflaged as a poultry farm. The unit was frequently shifting locations to evade detection, officials said.
“The seizure included 11.848 kg of the drug in liquid form, 9.326 kg in semi-liquid form, and 738 grams in crystalline form, along with 71.5 kg of raw material capable of yielding another 15 kg of mephedrone, collectively worth about ₹55 crore,” an official has been quoted as saying.
This drug is a synthetic stimulant, commonly described as a party drug. It carries serious health risks. Three persons, including the manufacturer or “cook”, the “financier-consigner”, and the poultry farm owner, were apprehended at the spot, an official said, adding that the first batch of the contraband had been hidden at the farm owner’s residence.
“In a follow-up operation, DRI officials nabbed two more persons, en route to collect the final product, near an old octroi toll naka in a densely forested area,” he said.
“Of the five accused, four had prior arrests under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act or prosecution under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act),” he added.
This is the second raid on a drug manufacturing unit in Satara district in the last two months. Last month, the Mumbai Crime Branch conducted a raid at Jawali and busted a clandestine drug manufacturing unit.
