DRI busts mephedrone factory in Satara, seizes drugs worth Rs 55 crore
Mumbai (PTI): The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has dismantled a mobile mephedrone manufacturing unit in Maharashtra’s Satara district, seized drugs worth Rs 55 crore and arrested five persons, officials said.
Acting on inputs, DRI officials conducted ‘Operation Sahyadri Checkmate’ on Friday in a remote village in the Karad tehsil, an official said on Sunday.
Teams from the country’s premier anti-smuggling agency carried out a raid and unearthed a fully operational laboratory, equipped for mephedrone production, 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 mepehdrone, collectively worth about Rs 55 crore, the official said.
Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant and is commonly described as a party drug. It carries serious health risks.
Three persons, including the manufacturer or “cook”, the “financer-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), the official said.
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.
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MP: 7-year-old girl raped and murdered; minor relative detained
Barwani (MP), Jan 28 (PTI) Police on Wednesday detained a 17-year-old relative of a seven-year-old girl in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly raping her and killing her by throwing her into a canal, a police official said.
Superintendent of Police Jagdish Dawar told reporters that the body of the child was recovered from the Indira Sagar Canal on January 26, following information from residents of a village in the Rajpur police station area of the district.
He said the post-mortem report concluded severe injuries to the girl’s private parts and attributed her death to drowning.
Dawar said a 17-year-old boy, a close relative of the girl, has been detained in connection with the rape-murder.
The teenager told the police that he kidnapped the girl from her home on the night of January 25 while her family members were asleep, took her to a nearby canal and raped her, according to the official.
When the girl started screaming during the sexual assault, the minor boy allegedly threw her into the canal, with the intention of killing her. The child drowned in the water body, the official said.
The detained minor will be produced in a juvenile court.
A case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and an investigation is underway, he added.
