DRI busts MD-making factory in remote Latur village, cop among 7 held

The DRI operation busted the clandestine factory, after receiving information on the syndicate’s mephedrone or MD-making activities, agency sources said. The facility was found set up in the remote hilly terrain of Rohina village, Latur, DRI sources said

MUMBAI: A mephedrone-making facility in a Latur village was busted by the Mumbai unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Tuesday. While five accused were arrested at the spot, including a policeman, the syndicate’s financier and distributor were arrested in Mumbai and 11.36-kg stock with an estimated value of ₹17 crore in the grey market was seized.

DRI busts MD-making factory in remote Latur village, cop among 7 held

The DRI operation busted the clandestine factory, after receiving information on the syndicate’s mephedrone or MD-making activities, agency sources said. The facility was found set up in the remote hilly terrain of Rohina village, Latur, DRI sources said. During the search conducted at the facility, 11.36 kg of mephedrone-8.44 kg in dry form and 2.92 kg in liquid form-was recovered.

The search also yielded large quantities of raw materials and full-scale lab equipment, the sources said. The manufacturing facility-laboratory, set up inside a rectangular shed, was crammed with associated paraphernalia including machinery, blue drums, tubes, beakers and specialised equipment, the sources said.

After getting information about the facility, DRI officers had conducted elaborate surveillance around its location and early on Tuesday, conducted a search there. “Initially, five persons, including a police constable, involved in the manufacturing of mephedrone at the facility were apprehended,” a DRI source said. “In a subsequent swift follow up operation, the distributor and financier were also apprehended in Mumbai,” the source said.

During their subsequent interrogation, all the seven arrested accused allegedly admitted to their respective roles in financing, manufacturing and trafficking of the psychotropic substance, the DRI source said. The DRI seized the Mephedrone, along with raw materials and equipment, and arrested the seven accused persons under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,1985.

Last month, the Mumbai unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had busted a mephedrone-manufacturing facility in Raigad and seized 46.8 kg of the drug, estimated to be worth ₹50 crore in the grey markets. The NCB had also arrested two accused connected to the illegal facility, including a chemistry post-graduate in his mid-50s.

Rise in seizures

The seizure of mephedrone in 2022-2023 by the DRI had risen sharply by over three times, when compared to the seizure figures of 2020 – 2021. While in 2020-21, the agency’s seizure of Mephedrone stood at around 218.25 kg, it intercepted 791.25 kg of the psychotropic substance in 2022-23, agency sources said. The rise of 362% reflected the increasing use of synthetic drugs in India and the misuse of industrial units in the making of such drugs, agency sources said.