UNDERSTANDING OPERATION VITAMIN

DRI named the operation, Operation Vitamin, as the drug is also called as Vitamin K days the operation went on residential and industrial places in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa were raided

Ketamine was seized

of raw material

308kg 2000kg

The Goa-based racket was being run by two British and a Vietnamese national. They used to convert the impure Ketamine to its pure form and send back the final product to Mumbai, from where it was sent to the United Kingdom and Canada through courier shipments. They would conceal Ketamine in teabags. enough to manufacture another 250kg of Ketamine was seized

Worth of hashish, cocaine and opium seized in the raids

₹35crore: 10 people

were arrested from Indore (MP) and Mangalore (Karnataka) for their involvement in the racket

DRI officials suspect the arrested British nationals were dealing with other drugs and active in the drug supply chain for long. The Gujarat-based racket used to carry out the Ketamine conversion at a factory in Baroda. The gang used to send the final product to a place in Palampur, from where Ketamine was sent to a port in Gujarat to be transported to African countries using the sea route. The drugs would be smuggled along with ordinary chemicals, the official said.

This syndicate is believed to have supplied drugs to international traffickers in Australia, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, UK, Canada, Malaysia, Vietnam and Kenya. “As we cracked down on the main source of Ketamine and unearthed the entire set-up, we believe that there will be no Ketamine in the market for a long time,” additional director general, DRI Shravan Kumar told HT. Apart from Shedge, the arrested include New Panvel resident Anthony Paul, Jalandar resident Akshinder Sodhi, Ishrat Parmar, a resident of Juna Deesa, Gujarat, Purohit Jagdishbhai, a Vadodara resident and Mayur Sadrani from Rajkot in Gujarat and Sarpreet Singh. Vietnamese national Nyugeh Kuong, British nationals Jonathan Thorn and John Brecken were also arrested.