The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has arrested three people, including a Mexican national, for allegedly possessing over 10 kg of fentanyl hydrochloride, a narcotic substance which is worth over Rs 100 crore in the international market, officials said on Friday.
The accused, Jorge Solis (43), the Mexican national, and Mohammed Sadiq (59) and Manu Gupta (45), both residents of Indore, were presented in the court of Special Judge (NDPS cases) Krishnamurty Mishra on Friday, who sent them to DRI custody till October 5.
The prosecution had sought one-week custody of the three, stating that the DRI needed to find out the source of the raw material used to manufacture fentanyl hydrochloride and also to get the mobile phones of the accused examined at a laboratory to unravel their contacts and conversations.
According to DRI sources fentanyl hydrochloride was being manufactured illicitly at a factory run Sadiq, which produces laboratory chemicals and scientific instruments.
They said Solis had come to Indore to pick up a consignment of fentanyl hydrochloride and 10.91 kg fentanyl hydrochloride has been seized from different premises used by Gupta and Sadiq.
Fentanyl hydrochloride is the salt form of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid with pain-relieving and anaesthetic properties. It is classified as a drug under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.