“Working on a developed intelligence basis, the DRI launched an operation codenamed Operation Sahyadri Checkmate and dismantled a mobile clandestine mephedrone manufacturing laboratory in the remote interior of the Sahyadri mountains,” read a press release from the Ministry of Finance.

Officials said the illicit lab was designed to evade detection by frequently changing locations. The investigation team’s surveillance led to the identification of a camouflage manufacturing unit operating under the guise of a poultry farm. A coordinated operation launched by DRI on January 24 unearthed the makeshift, mobile and fully operational clandestine laboratory, equipped with apparatus capable of manufacturing mephedrone (NDPS substance).

“A total of 21,912 kg of mephedrone in different forms was seized, of which 11,848 kg in liquid form, 9,326 kg in semi-liquid form and 738 g in crystalline form. In addition, 71.5 kg of raw material, capable of producing approximately 15 kg of finished NDPS substance, was also seized. The illicit market value of the seized NDPS substance is estimated to be approximately Rs.55 crore,” the ministry statement said.

DRI arrested three people, including the “cook” who was involved in the manufacture of mephedrone, the financier-shipper and the owner of the poultry farm. Investigations revealed that the first batch of finished contraband had been hidden at the poultry farm owner’s residence for safekeeping.

In a follow-up action, DRI officers mounted night surveillance near an old octroi toll naka located within a dense forest area and detained two more people along the way to collect the final product. Officials said that of the five individuals arrested, four are repeat offenders as they had previously been arrested under the NDPS Act or prosecuted under serious legislations such as the MCOCA of 1999.

“The successful operation underlines the critical role of DRI in safeguarding national security by disrupting organized drug trafficking networks that pose a serious threat to public health, law and order and economic stability,” the Finance Ministry statement said.

Mephedrone, which has various street names such as Meow Meow, White Magic, M-Cat and Drone, is a synthetically manufactured stimulant from the category of amphetamines and cathinones. Until early 2010, the drug was not included in the contraband list under the NDPS Act. But multiple seizures of large quantities of the drug and increasing cases of its use as a narcotic in big cities led authorities to list it in 2015. The drug has reported rapid growth in its consumption across India in recent years.

In one of the largest mephedrone robberies ever carried out in the country, the Pune In February 2024, the Crime Branch of the city police seized around 1,800 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 3.7 crore in several raids conducted at a chemical factory in Daund taluka, two warehouses in Pune’s Vishrantwadi, some shops in South Extension in New Delhi and a few more places in Sangli district. The investigation had revealed a sophisticated production line of the synthetic stimulant, operated from a chemical factory disguised as a pharmaceutical unit in an industrial cluster at Kurkumbh in Daund. The case was later transferred to the Narcotics Control Office.