Two more caught in Madhavaram drug bust case

CHENNAI: In the follow-up of the massive drug bust reported in Madhavaram on Monday, the Anti-Narcotics Intelligence Unit team arrested a key drug dealer, Vikas, and another suspect, who is a close relative of the arrested mastermind Venkatesan, from his Delhi hideout. Search for Vikas’s brother Vikram is underway.

The police sources said that the Shanmugam, who was nabbed in Delhi, is being brought to Madhavaram police station for interrogation. They believe interrogating him will uncover his role in the drug-smuggling operation.

On December 21, the Madhavaram police arrested V Venkatesan (41) of Madhavaram and K Karthik (36) of Triplicane with 1.5 kg meth. The city police had arrested more than 10 suspects, including the Venkatesan’s wife, linked to the drug network.

Investigations revealed that Venkatesan was procuring methamphetamine from Manipur from a person he became friends with while serving prison time in connection with a narcotics case in Punjab.

The co-accused set up a small lab in Aruppukottai in Virudhunagar district, but the majority supply was from Manipur, police said.

Venkatesan used to supply pseudoephedrine to Shahul Hameed of Mannadi and Lakshmi Narasimhan of Madurai and meth to Diwan Mohammed of Burma Bazaar. When Diwan got arrested by the Muthialpet police two months ago, Venkatesan started supplying to his driver, Karthik, who got arrested along with Venkatesan.

Shahul Hameed and Lakshmi Narasimhan were arrested on Monday along with Lawrence, Sarath Kumar, Murugan and Venkatesan’s wife, Jancy Merida, for aiding and abetting M Prabhu and RV Shanmugam. Venkatesan’s accomplices in the Punjab police case were also arrested.

The police seized 17.815 kg of methamphetamine from them, the largest haul by the Chennai police in 2024.