How major mephedrone seizures are linked to chemical factories in industrial clusters near Pune, Mumbai

On Monday and Tuesday, in one of the biggest-ever drug busts in the country in the recent past, the Pune City police seized around 1,800 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 3,500 crore in several raids held at a chemical manufacturing factory in Daund taluka, two godowns in Pune’s Vishrantwadi and some shops in South Extension in New Delhi.

The investigation unearthed a sophisticated production line for drugs, operating from a chemical factory disguised as a pharmaceutical unit at an industrial cluster in Kurkumbh in Daund.

Connecting the dots

This is not the first time the Kurkumbh industrial cluster’s name has come up in connection to mephedrone production. In August 2016, the customs department arrested several drug racketeers, including a British national of Indian origin, and seized 159 kg of mephedrone (valued at Rs 25 crore then) in a raid at a chemical factory in Kurkumbh industrial area. The plant was licensed for production of industrial reagents.

In May 2017, the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of Mumbai police which was probing the seizure of 8 kg of mephedrone from a person arrested on Sion-Panvel Road raided another factory in Kurkumbh industrial cluster and seized over 100 kg of mephedrone (then worth over Rs 25 crore). The difference in the value of the seized narcotics in the two cases was because of the different levels of purities of the contraband.

A probe by the Pimpri Chinchwad police following the seizure of 20 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 20 crore from Chakan in October 2020 had revealed mephedrone worth about Rs 132 crore was manufactured at a biotech company’s premises in the Ranjangaon industrial cluster in Pune district. The same cartel had initially synthesized their drugs at two closed chemical factories in an industrial cluster in Mahad taluka in Raigad district, where an estimated 70 kg of mephedrone was manufactured.

In October and November last year, the Pune City police and parallel probes by the Mumbai and Nashik police unearthed a widespread mephedrone manufacturing cartel operated by the drug kingpin Lalit Patil. In a raid conducted at a chemical factory in Shinde Gaon in Nashik, the Mumbai police had seized over 150 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 300 crore. Patil was initially arrested by the Pimpri Chinchwad police in a 2020 case.

Location is the key

“These units are typically located in areas of industrial clusters that are away from the main roads. They procure the primary ingredients needed for manufacturing the drugs on the pretext of manufacturing medicines, industrial reagents, etc and buy them illegally. Some of the precursor chemicals are commonly available and some others are minimally regulated. It would require multi-agency cooperation if these factories are to be busted in time,” a senior officer who is part of the probe said.