In lightning raids in Satara and Sangli districts in western Maharashtra, authorities of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), in collaboration with the Pune Customs Department, have seized a massive consignment of the mephedrone narcotic exceeding 500 kg, making it one of the largest seizures of the lethal synthetic drug in the State since its official ban last month.
Four people, including the scion of the transport company Konduskar Travels, have been detained, said police sources. The total catch valued at more than Rs. 30 crore.
Acting on a tip-off, DRI officials stopped a Maruti Swift on Monday morning near the Urse toll on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and retrieved around 50 kg of the drug from the car.
Mephedrone (MD) is widely circulated in rave parties in Mumbai and Goa. Last month, following the Centre’s crackdown, use of MD was declared illicit after it was brought under the purview of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
Further grilling led to raids in a factory in Islampur city in Sangli district from where more than 350 kg of the drug were recovered. A parallel raid in the remote village of Kanheri in Satara led to the retrieval of a further 112 kg of MD.
“We are questioning Ravindra Konduskar, who also owns Onkar Industries in Islampur MIDC and have sealed the factory. In 2011, his brother, Abhijit, was arrested with 200 kg of ketamine,” said a DRI official.
