DRI busts Mumbai-Hyderabad drug ring, seizes 250-kg banned substances

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, Aug 17

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday said it has busted a drug syndicate network operating in Hyderabad and Mumbai and seized a total of over 250 kg of different banned psychotropic substances worth almost Rs 47 crore in the grey market.

Officials in the agency said, the agency also seized cash of Rs 45 lakh in INR, USD and EUR currency notes, under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

A senior DRI official said, “In a carefully coordinated operation spread out over 3 days across multiple locations in Mumbai and Hyderabad, officers of the agency seized a total of over 250 kg of different drugs (psychotropic substances) worth almost Rs. 47 crore in the grey market and cash of Rs. 45 lakh in INR, USD and EUR currency notes, under the provisions of the NDPS Act.”

Officials said, acting on a tip-off that a consignment of Mephedrone, a banned psychotropic substance, was arriving in Mumbai on August 15, 2020 from Hyderabad, the DRI sleuths kept surveillance and intercepted the consignment as soon as it arrived from Hyderabad.

“The Mephedrone consignment had been cleverly loaded in a private passenger bus as cargo with no persons accompanying it, to ensure that even if the consignment was caught, no individuals could be linked to it,” the official said.

The agency, however, launched a series of follow-up raids, as the recipients of the consignment in Mumbai were identified and these resulted in recovery of Mephedrone and Ketamine ready to be distributed, in addition to samples of other psychotropic substances, he said, adding that the operations revealed “a sophisticated distribution network both within the country and abroad”.

The seized psychotropic substances were Mephedrone – 210 kg, Ketamine – 10 kg and Ephedrine – 31 kg, the officials said, while claiming that the raids led to identification of a drug manufacturing laboratory in a residential premise in Mumbai and a factory in Hyderabad, leading to recovery of a huge quantity of various chemical raw material intended for further manufacture of the drugs. In the process the DRI sleuths arrested three persons, they informed.