CBN Busts Mephedrone Lab in Mau Under Operation Vajra 3.0

A secret drug factory in eastern Uttar Pradesh has been shut down. The Central Bureau of Narcotics, which works under the Ministry of Finance, announced on 11 November 2026 that it had broken up a clandestine laboratory making mephedrone, the synthetic drug sold on the street as MD, in the Tajopur Industrial Area of Mau district. The action was taken under Operation Vajra 3.0.

How the raid unfolded

Intelligence was developed by the Bureau's Madhya Pradesh unit. Acting on it, a joint team of the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh units moved together on 8 November 2026 and found the facility in working order, which is what made the seizure valuable: the laboratory was not a storage shed but an operating plant.

What was seized

The team recovered 11.7 kg of mephedrone at various stages of processing. It also took away 20.9 kg of 2-bromo-4-methylpropiophenone, the key precursor chemical from which the drug is cooked, along with 3.5 kg of acetic anhydride and roughly 119.9 kg or litres of assorted chemicals, solvents and reagents, among them dichloromethane, hydrochloric acid, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and organic amines. The entire apparatus of the laboratory was seized and dismantled, including industrial grinders and mixers, steel tanks and vessels, heating equipment, glass reaction and distillation sets, temperature measuring instruments, voltage balancers and protective gear for the workers.

Arrests and the law applied

Two persons connected with the manufacturing network were arrested under the NDPS Act, 1985, and all proceedings were carried out under that law. Investigators are now tracing the wider interstate network, the source of the precursor chemicals, the money behind the operation and the channels through which the drug was to be distributed.

The year's record

The Mau raid is not an isolated success. During 2026 the Central Bureau of Narcotics has broken up six clandestine laboratories so far, seizing 130.2 kg of mephedrone and 1,465.4 kg or litres of precursor chemicals, with 20 suspects arrested in these cases. The Bureau links the work to the national goal of a Nasha Mukt Bharat and a Viksit Bharat.