Hyderabad: Four persons allegedly involved in the transportation of mephedrone, a banned narcotic substance, were arrested in Telangana’s Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, police said on Sunday, August 9.
The police seized 27 kg of the contraband, valued at Rs 54 crore.
The contraband was being transported to Nagpur in Maharashtra for distribution, they said.
Acting on credible information, a team from Bibinagar police station conducted a special operation near the outskirts of Kondamadugu village on August 8 and intercepted a car.
During a search, the police found 27 kg of mephedrone and two plastic cans containing around 40 kg of acetone, a chemical used in the manufacture of drugs, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri Superintendent of Police Akshansh Yadav said in a release.
During interrogation, the four accused—two from Maharashtra and one each from Assam and Hyderabad—allegedly confessed that the banned drug had been manufactured illegally at a laboratory in Kondamadugu between August 5 and 7, with the assistance of other associates.
Based on their confession, the police raided the laboratory and seized equipment used in manufacturing the drug—a reactor and a centrifuge.
Police said the four arrested persons comprised the alleged organiser and financier of the drug manufacturing operation, those involved in its manufacture and transportation, and the person in charge of the laboratory.
They were produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
The key accused in the case, among them the laboratory owner, are absconding, and efforts are underway to apprehend them, police said.
The seized laboratory premises and equipment will be dealt with in accordance with the law, police added.
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