BHOPAL: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested three people, including two Nigerian women, in three separate operations in Madhya Pradesh over four days, recovering more than 4.3 kg of amphetamine and other synthetic drugs worth several crores of rupees.
The operations were carried out in Indore and Bhopal between September 21 and 24, with the suspects allegedly using buses and trains to transport the drugs.
In the first operation on September 21, DRI officers acting on specific intelligence intercepted a Nigerian woman at the Purple Bus Travel Agency near Teen Imli Chauraha in Indore. She was allegedly travelling by bus to Pune and was suspected of carrying narcotic and psychotropic substances.
Officers searched her duffle bag and recovered 1.120 kg of amphetamine in crystalline/powder form, 296 gm of amphetamine/MDMA tablets and 10 gm of hydroponic cannabis. The drugs were valued at around Rs 1.19 crore in the illicit market, according to the DRI. The woman was arrested under the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985.
The following day, DRI officers carried out another interception at Bhopal Junction. Acting on a tip that an Indian passenger travelling from Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi was carrying drugs, the officers searched his blue duffle bag after the train arrived at the station.
Three packets containing 2.014 kg of a white crystalline substance were recovered from the bag. Field testing confirmed the substance as amphetamine. The man was arrested under the NDPS Act.
On September 24, DRI officers intercepted another Nigerian woman at Rani Kamlapati Railway Station in Bhopal. She was travelling by train from Agra Cantt when officers searched her baggage and found four packets concealed inside four salwar kurtas.
The packets contained 2.368 kg of crystalline amphetamine. The substance was seized and the woman was arrested under the NDPS Act.
The amphetamine recovered in the two Bhopal operations on September 23 and 24 totalled 4.382 kg. The DRI estimated its value at around Rs 3.5 crore in the international illicit market.
The latest seizures come weeks after the agency claimed to have busted an international synthetic drug syndicate in a coordinated operation spanning Bhopal and Greater Noida.
In August, five people, including four Nigerian nationals, were arrested in what the DRI called Operation Crystal Dagger. The operation began with the interception of a woman at Bhopal Junction on August 11. Officers recovered 6.325 kg of crystalline methamphetamine from a cavity concealed inside her trolley bag.
In a simultaneous operation in Greater Noida, the DRI, along with the Central Bureau of Narcotics, arrested four Nigerian nationals and recovered 2.242 kg of methamphetamine, 50 gm of cocaine and 25 gm of cannabis.
The combined seizures in the August operation amounted to around 8.6 kg of drugs, which the DRI valued at Rs 7.1 crore in the international illicit market.
The agency is now probing the supply chains involved in the latest seizures and investigating possible interstate and international links.