Over the past year, drugs worth more than ₹8,000 crore have been either seized in Gujarat, or traced back to the state after being seized elsewhere.

Drug seizures in Gujarat over the last five years have yielded a total of 93,691 kg — 2,229 litres of liquid drugs, and 73,163 pills and injections — of narcotics. 

Before the modus operandi of making drugs under the guise of pharmaceutical companies, the only trend was smuggling drugs via Pakistan and Afghanistan in Gujarat.

Units manufacturing drugs were spread across Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh.

Now, drug manufacturers seem to be taking advantage of Gujarat’s position as a top pharma hub to set up operations within the state. 

Central and state agencies have conducted several major anti-narcotics operations in Gujarat this year alone.

October: 

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Narcotics Cell of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) bust a mephedrone factory in Valsad’s Umargam GIDC and Dehari. The joint operation leads to three arrests and a seizure of 17 kg of liquid mephedrone worth ₹25 crore.

An investigation into ₹7,000 crore worth of cocaine seized by the Delhi Police is revealed to have been manufactured in Ankleshwar; raid at the drug unit leads to seizure of 518 kg of cocaine, worth ₹5,000 crore.

August: 

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Gujarat Police seizes ₹800 crore worth of drugs from a Thane factory.

July:

Mephedrone worth ₹51 crore seized in Palsana factory bust. 

Customs seizes a container carrying 68 lakh tramadol tablets (worth ₹110 crore), intended for delivery to West Africa, from the Mundra port in Kutch.

ATS team busts unit illegally making tramadol at a pharma unit in Dahej’s Jolva GIDC; seizes 1,410 litres of liquid tramadol — which is used in the production of tramadol tablets — worth ₹31 crore. 

June: 

Joint operation between ATS and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Madhya Pradesh leads to the seizure of 907 kg of mephedrone, worth ₹1,814 crore from a factory in the Bagroda Industrial Area near Bhopal.

April: 

ATS-NCB raids in Gandhinagar's Piplaj, Bhaktinagar in Amreli, Sirohi in Rajasthan, and Osian in Rajasthan lead to seizure of ₹230 crore worth of mephedrone, 13 arrests.  

With Gujarat’s pharma boom bringing in increased investment and competition, law enforcement authorities will be looking to combat rising illicit drug activities while also continuing to keep one eye out to sea.  

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DRI nabs four with drugs worth ₹168 cr in Gujarat’s border district