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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Strikes on 3 more alleged drug boats kill 11 people, US military says
Washington (AP): The US military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration's monthslong campaign.
The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels since early September.
Like most of the military's statements on the 42 known strikes, US Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It said two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean Sea.
The military did not provide evidence that the vessels were ferrying drugs but posted videos that showed boats being destroyed.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
