The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has seized 60 kg mephedrone drug worth more than Rs 120 crore from Mumbai and Gujarat, and arrested six members of an inter-state drug cartel, including a former Air India pilot, a senior official said here on Friday.
The action was taken based on specific inputs received by the Naval Intelligence unit at Jamnagar in Gujarat, said Sanjay Singh, Deputy Director General of the NCB in a press briefing here.
"We have cracked a drug network spread across various states of the country and arrested six persons involved in the syndicate," he said.
Following the tip-off, the officials from the NCB headquarters in Delhi and its Mumbai zonal unit conducted a raid at Jamnagar on Monday and seized 10 kg mephedrone, he said.
The NCB team arrested one person from Jamnagar and three others from Mumbai in this connection, Singh added.
"On Thursday, the NCB team raided a godown located on S B Road in Fort area of south Mumbai, from where it seized 50 kg mephedrone and arrested two more accused, including the kingpin in the case," he said, adding that more people are likely to be held.
The accused former pilot had started his career as a lower-rank employee and later passed a pilot course exam, he said.
"The pilot had left his job due to some medical reasons and since then he had been involved in the drug cartel," he said.
One of the accused held from Mumbai is a history-sheeter. He was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue intelligence (DRI) in 2001 in a 350 kg mandrax drug trafficking case and has been out on bail since 2008, the official added.