13 held with mephedrone worth Rs 230 cr, after raids in Gujarat, Rajasthan

The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad and Narcotics Control Bureau jointly raided four units in the state and neighbouring Rajasthan and nabbed 13 persons allegedly with mephedrone worth Rs 230 crore, an official said on Saturday.

The raids were carried out on Friday after the ATS received a tip off that Ahmedabad-resident Manoharlal Enani and Kuldeepsinh Rajpurohit of Rajasthan had set up mephedrone manufacturing units.

A watch was kept on the movements of Enani and Rajpurohit as well as their accomplices, following which raids were carried out on units in Sirohi and Jodhpur in Rajasthan and Piplaj village in Gandhinagar and Bhaktinagar industrial area of Amreli district in Gujarat, an ATS release informed.

"The ATS recovered 22.028 kilograms of mephedrone and 124 kilograms of liquid mephedrone, collectively worth Rs 230 crore. Rajpurohit was nabbed during the raid at Gandhinagar and Enani was held from Sirohi,"

it said. As per the probe, Enani was in jail for seven years after he was nabbed by DRI in 2015 for his involvement in the production of mephedrone at an industrial unit in Rajasthan.

All the accused are inter-connected and were procuring the raw material from a company in Vapi industrial area of Valsad district, the release informed. "Investigations are on to find out since when they have been producing the drug, whether they have sold it in the past and who else were part of the entire cartel," said the release.