The Nagpur Police arrested three persons with one kilogram cocaine worth of Rs. 60 lakhs here on Wednesday.
Acting on a tip off, a crime branch team detained three accused and recovered the contraband from their possession, which is worth around Rs. 60 lakh.
Nagpur Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ranjan Sharma, said that the investigation was underway to identify and arrest other members of the gang.
"The crime branch got information that some people were coming with a consignment of cocaine. On the basis of it, a crime branch team detained these people and frisked them. During checking, we recovered one kilogram of white power, which turned out to be cocaine," Sharma said.
The cocaine use, while still low compared to Europe and North America, is on the rise among newly wealthy party-goers in the top cities of Asia's fast growing economies. The drugs appear to be for local use in cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, according to police reports.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that Southeast Asia's trade in heroin and methamphetamine was worth USD 31 billion in 2013.