BHOPAL: Districts of western Madhya Pradesh and adjoining southeastern Rajasthan, which have long formed the opium cultivation belt and smuggling route of the country, are now emerging as hotspots of illegal manufacturing and smuggling of MDMA synthetic drug.
The latest inter-state MDMA manufacture-smuggling racket has been busted in Surjana village in 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 specific inputs, more than 80 policemen from eight police stations of Mandsaur district raided Surjana village on Saturday night and busted the MDMA manufacturing unit being run there.
“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 being in the illegal business for around two years and running the illicit MDMA unit in the village for 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 Rs 13 crore.
Importantly, 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 MP police in less than four months.
Earlier, on November 28, 2025, a similar MDMA manufacturing and smuggling racket was busted by the MP Police’s narcotics wing in Lasudiya Hastmurar village of western MP’s Neemuch district, also located close to the Gandhi Sagar Dam’s backwaters.
While three men were arrested, the seizure in November 2025 was worth over Rs 30 crore.
Not just the backwaters of the Gandhi Sagar Dam on the MP-Rajasthan border, but districts located in MP’s Malwa region (western MP), including Mandsaur, Neemuch, and Ratlam, and districts of the adjoining Rajasthan’s Mewar and Hadoti region (southeastern Rajasthan), including Pratapgarh, Chittorgarh, Jhalawar, and Kota, have reported major MDMA seizures and busts of related rackets in the last few months.
Last month, two MDMA racket units were busted on both sides of the MP-Rajasthan border, among them a unit in Ghatakheri village of Rajasthan’s Jhalawar district and a similar unit later in Chikalana village of adjoining Ratlam district of western MP.
“In Rajasthan, particularly, at least 15 such racket units manufacturing and smuggling MDMA have been busted in the last six months. In the last four months, the Rajasthan police’s dedicated anti-narcotics task force (ANTF), which was constituted with the creation of 18 outposts, has carried out around 100 successful operations against all types of drug smugglers, mostly in the Hadoti and Mewar region,” Vikas Kumar, IG of Rajasthan ANTF, told TNIE.
Importantly, the districts of western MP’s Mandsaur-Neemuch region and the adjoining Mewar and Hadoti regions of Rajasthan have long formed the legal opium cultivation, but illegal poppy/opium smuggling route in the country.
With profit margins declining in the narcotics trade, especially due to alternative opium syndicates operating from the North East and Jharkhand, those involved in opium smuggling in western MP and southeastern Rajasthan first switched to smuggling smack (heroin) and then moved on to MDMA manufacture and smuggling.
“With Gujarat neighbouring the Malwa and Mewar regions of MP and Rajasthan respectively, the transport of chemicals for preparing MDMA is easy. Also, the profit margins in MDMA are ten to twelve times more than opium smuggling, which is a major reason the region of the two bordering states, historically known for opium smugglers, is slowly turning into a hotbed of MDMA manufacture and smuggling,” a senior police officer said.