HYDERABAD: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Saturday confirmed that the psychotropic substance they seized from a car at Kamkole toll plaza in Sangareddy on Thursday was methaqualone. A total of 46 kg, worth `23 crore, was seized and three persons were arrested in connection with the case. It was initially suspected to be 55 kg of cocaine. The sleuths have received information about a pan- south India gang behind the drug trade.
The drug is being manufactured in Maharashtra and being smuggled to Chennai. The exact destination of the drug is yet to be traced. Pan-South India searches are simultaneously going on to nab the other accused. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the drug was loaded into the car by a person at Omerga in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra, who instructed the car driver to deliver the drug in Chennai. The vehicle and the drug have been seized and three persons arrested in the connection, an official said.
A senior official from the DRI said, “On immediate follow-up, the sleuths identified a factory at Omerga where methaqualone was being manufactured. The factory is abandoned but contained all the equipment required to manufacture the drug. There was half a kg of remnant methaqualone, which was also seized,” he said adding several teams are conducting searches in Hyderabad, Osmanabad, Kochi, Chennai and Bengaluru.
False casing behind seat to conceal the drug
On detailed search of the vehicle, the officers found the methaqualone concealed in a false casing behind the rear seats and on the side walls of the boot of the car, which was further secured with metal covers. The false casing was cleverly masked by pasting a thick black cloth over it to avoid any suspicion. The officers searched the car and unearthed 46 packets concealments attached to the side walls of the boot of the car. Each packet contained white powder, which on testing with the narcotic drugs detection kit, tested positive for methaqualone.