Inter-State Synthetic Drug Racket Busted: EAGLE Force Arrests Seven

HYDERABAD: The EAGLE Force, following a two-month probe, said it had dismantled a drug manufacturing and trafficking network with the arrest of seven persons, uncovering clandestine laboratories in Gondia district of Maharashtra, as well as Vetukuri Labs, Kondamadugu, and SM Labs, Moula Ali.

EAGLE Force director Sandeep Shandilya told Deccan Chronicle that the the case originated on August 8, when the Bibinagar police intercepted an SUV travelling from Kondamadugu towards Nagpur and seized 27.2 kg mephedrone and 56.98 kg of acetone and booked three persons under the NDPS Act.

Seven teams took up the case and found that the accused had allegedly manufactured mephedrone at Vetukuri Labs and operated a clandestine drug manufacturing unit at a poultry farm in Maregaon village, Tiroda taluk, Gondia district, Maharashtra.

“On October 17, our teams during raids seized advanced scientific equipment that was being used for drug manufacture. We also found that key chemicals, including deadly propionyl chloride, which was supplied from Gujarat,” Shandilya said. The teams also found that the gang had been manufacturing alprazolam and ephedrine at SM Labs, Moula Ali.

EAGLE Focre formed additional teams, extended the investigation, raided several locations in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and found that the drugs were being exported to the international markets, he said. Police were on the look-out for other accused in the case. Among the arrested accused were key operator Chetan Madhukar Meshram, chemical supplier Jairaj Krishna Shetty and Vetukuri Labs owner Rakesh Varma.