NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has busted an international syndicate of party drugs with the seizure of Ketamine worth ₹56 crore. The agency has dismantled four manufacturing facilities. Ten people, including two UK citizens and one Vietnamese national, have been arrested.
“These people were key members of an international syndicate which had close linkages in southeast Asia and Canada,” said a senior official. It is suspected that the syndicate supplied Ketamine to drug traffickers in Sri Lanka, Mozambique, United Kingdom, Canada, Malaysia, Nepal, Australia, Vietnam and Kenya.
As part of the all-India drive codenamed “Operation Vitamin”, DRI sleuths mounted a three-day surveillance across several states and zeroed in on 14 residential and industrial premises.
Four Ketamine-manufacturing facilities located in Goa, Vadodara and Raigad were dismantled and about 308 kg of the contraband and 2,000 kg of precursors and other raw materials were seized.
“The significance of this seizure can be gauged from the fact that the all-India seizure of Ketamine during 2016 was only 68.06 kg,” said a senior official.
Ketamine, also known as ‘K’, ‘Special K’ or ‘Vitamin K’, is a potent anaesthetic commonly used in veterinary medicine. However, it is extremely popular as a recreational drug and is also referred to as a “date rape drug”.