BHOPAL: Districts of western MP and adjoining southeastern Rajasthan, which have since long formed the opium cultivation belt and smuggling route of the country, are now emerging as the hotspots of illegal manufacturing and smuggling of MDMA synthetic drug.
The latest inter-state MDMA manufacture-smuggling racket has been busted in Surjana village on western MP’s Mandsaur district’s Garoth area -- located close to the backwaters of the Gandhi Sagar Dam.
Built on the river Chambal on the MP-Rajasthan border, the Gandhi Sagar Dam is neighboured by the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, which is the second home to African cheetahs in India. Acting on inputs, over 80 policemen from eight police stations of Mandsaur district raided the village on Saturday night and busted the MDMA manufacturing unit.
“We’ve seized the chemical mix (crude MDMA) which was readied for preparing the finished MDMA. Two men have been arrested along with more than 12.6 kg of chemical mix. The arrested men, during initial questioning, have revealed about being in the illegal business for around two years and running the illicit MDMA unit in the concerned village since the last few months,” DIG-Ratlam Range Nimish Agrawal said on Sunday.
“We’re now working at finding the backward and forward linkages (raw material/chemical supply route and the route for smuggling the finished MDMA) to penetrate deeper into the inter-state network,” Agrawal added. The seized chemical mix, crude MDMA and equipment are reportedly worth around `13 crore. This is the second MDMA inter-state racket with a base in villages close to the Gandhi Sagar Dam’s backwaters busted in less than four months.
Not 1st case, similar racket was busted in Nov ’25
This is the second MDMA inter-state racket having its base in villages close to the Gandhi Sagar Dam’s backwaters, which has been busted by the police in less than four months. On November 28, a similar racket was busted in Lasudiya Hastmurar village of western MP’s Neemuch.