Gujarat's ATS officials seizes 225kg of mephedrone worth ₹1,125 crore in a raid

|HT|

In a major drug haul, Gujarat’s anti-terrorist squad (ATS) officials seized 225kg of mephedrone worth ₹1,125crore, during a raid at an under-construction factory near Vadodara city on Tuesday and detained six people in connection with the matter.

“Acting on a specific tip-off, a team of the Gujarat ATS raided a factory-cum-warehouse on Tuesday morning. We have seized 225 kilograms of mephedrone, worth ₹1,125 crore, in the international market,” said Sunil Joshi, superintendent of police, Gujarat ATS.

According to Joshi, the seized narcotics were manufactured at a chemical factory in Saykha GIDC in Bharuch district before being processed at the under-construction facility in Savli taluka of Vadodara district, where the raid was conducted.

The factory in Vadodara is owned by Surat-based Mahesh Vaishnav and Vadodara-based Piyush Patel, said the SP.

The plant in Bharuch is owned by Rakesh Makani, Vijay Vasoya and Dilip Vaghasia, he added.

All five plant owners have been detained, along with one Dinesh Dhruv, who arranged meetings between Vaishnaw and Makani, Joshi said.

According to the officer, Vaishnaw came up with the plan to manufacture mephedrone at the factory and contacted the owners of the plant in Saykhya earlier this year.

“Vaishnav brought liquid mephedrone from Bharuch to his facility in Savli... He confessed of supplying about 15kg of mephedrone to one Dinesh Dhruv and two others from Mumbai and a similar quantity to a person from Rajasthan. The remaining quantity has been seized by the ATS,” said Joshi.

Dhruv has already spent 12 years in jail after being convicted in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case in 1994, according to Joshi.

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