Operation Sahyadri Checkmate: DRI busts Mephedrone lab in Satara poultry farm, arrests five including the ‘cook’

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

Officials said that the illicit laboratory was designed to evade detection by frequently shifting locations. Surveillance by the investigation team led to the identification of a camouflaged 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 mephedrone in different forms, comprising 11.848 kg in liquid form, 9.326 kg in semi-liquid form, and 738 gm in crystalline form was seized. In addition, 71.5 kg raw material, capable of producing approximately 15 kg 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 release said.

DRI apprehended three persons, including the ‘cook’ engaged in manufacturing of mephedrone, the financer-consigner, and the owner of the poultry farm. The first batch of finished contraband had been concealed at the residence of the poultry farm owner for safekeeping, investigations revealed.

In a follow-up action, officers of DRI mounted late-night surveillance near an old octroi toll naka located inside a dense forested area and apprehended two more individuals enroute to collect the final product. Officials said that of the five individuals arrested, four are repeat offenders, having earlier been arrested under the NDPS Act or prosecuted under serious legislations such as MCOCA, 1999.

“The successful operation underscores 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 Ministry of Finance statement said.

Mephedrone, which has various street names such Meow Meow, White Magic, M-Cat and Drone, is a synthetically manufactured stimulant of the amphetamine and cathinone category. Till early 2010, the drug was not included in the list of contrabands under the NDPS Act. But multiple seizures of large quantities of the drug and rising instances of its consumption as narcotic in large cities prompted authorities to include it in the list in 2015. The drug has reported a rapid growth in its consumption across India over the last few years.

In one of the biggest-ever mephedrone hauls in the country, the Pune City police’s Crime Branch had in February 2024 seized around 1,800 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 3,700 crore in several raids conducted at a chemical manufacturing factory in Daund taluka, two godowns in Pune’s Vishrantwadi, some shops in South Extension in New Delhi and some more places in Sangli district. The probe had unveiled a sophisticated production line for the synthetic stimulant, being run from a chemical factory guised as a pharmaceutical unit at an industrial cluster in Kurkumbh in Daund. The case was subsequently transferred to the Narcotics Control Bureau.