Ten persons were arrested and party drugs worth Rs. 30 crore were seized during a major pan-India operation carried out by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Wednesday. A total 308 kg of Ketamine was seized during the operation which spanned three days, making it one of the biggest seizures across the country in recent past. The all-India seizure of Ketamine during the calendar year 2016 was 68.06 kgs only, officials said.
Among the arrested are the main organisers and financiers of the manufacturing facilities/ laboratories, sellers and buyers in the supply chain, who were arrested under the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985. “Out of the apprehended/ arrested persons three are foreign nationals, two from UK and one from Vietnam. These persons were key members of an international syndicate which had close linkages in South-East Asia and Canada,” a DRI official said.
The syndicate is believed to have supplied Ketamine to international drug traffickers in countries like Sri Lanka, Mozambique, United Kingdom, Canada, Malaysia, Nepal, Australia, Vietnam and Kenya. Mostly, the drugs were smuggled through courier or posts. The syndicate is suspected to have supplied large quantities of Ketamine to various international and domestic buyers, officials said. “We developed intelligence that certain international narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances trafficking and smuggling organized syndicates had set-up manufacturing facilities in India to manufacture, sell and illicitly export banned synthetic drugs, such as Ketamine. The raids were carried on those inputs,” said an official.
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The “Operation Vitamin” was covered multiple states. As many 14 residential and industrial premises were raided while the teams dismantled four illicit Ketamine manufacturing facilities located in Goa, Vadodara and Raigad. In all, about 308 kgs of Ketamine has been seized by DRI along with 2, 000 kg of raw material enough to manufacture another 250 kg.