Secret Drug Lab Found in Buffalo Barn; Syndicate Head Arrested in Maharashtra

Maharashtra and Rajasthan police joined forces with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to bust an inter-state drug syndicate being run from clandestine labs. The operation was a huge success. It began on July 22, when the Barmer district police found out about a hidden lab inside a buffalo barn in Village Dholakia. At the lab they found large amounts of precursor chemicals like Chloroform, Ammonium Chloride, and Toluene - mainly used for producing Mephedrone. Lab equipment was seized from the barn and two people were arrested from there. The NCB’s Jodhpur unit investigated the case and helped in identifying links to Maharashtra.

Interrogation Reveals Maharashtra Links:
When the authorities were questioning the two arrested men, one of them revealed that the key member of the syndicate was running everything from Raigad district. He moved all the chemicals and equipment to the Barmer lab. After getting this tip, Raigad police and NCB Mumbai swiftly arrested the suspect.

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The probe led to shutting down the factory - M/s Rohan Chemicals in Mahad. From this factory, the accused manufactured synthetic drugs. When the factory was raided by the officials they recovered 34 kg of powdered Ketamine, 12 litres in liquid form, and a cache of precursor chemicals. When they dug-in deep, they found that the accused was a repeat offender, already under the radar for earlier drug cases handled by the DRI and NCB.

The narcotics network was swiftly dismantled as a result of the back-to-back searches and the coordinated intelligence sharing between police units in the Barmer, Raigad, and NCB zones in Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai. Police in Barmer and Raigad are still investigating, following up on a number of leads.

This bust follows closely on the heels of another similar operation in Sri Ganganagar, whereby science instructors were implicated in the seizure of 5 kg of mephedrone. NCB has distributed "red flag indicators" to all state police departments in an effort to help discover these covert drug-making hotspots. Additionally, NCB encourages the public to report drug-related information by calling the toll-free helpline 1933. The callers' identities will remain private.