Kochi: A week-long surveillance operation in Mattancherry has led the Kochi Excise team to a new link in the synthetic drug supply chain, with officials recovering 305.396 g of methamphetamine and ₹2.9 lakh in cash from a 28-year-old man allegedly operating from a rented room at Panayappilly in Mattancherry.

The arrest of Shifas A S, alias ‘Bappuji’ (28), comes days after the narcotics supplier Varun Dev was arrested. What drew the attention of the Excise Intelligence team was that the supply of synthetic drugs into Mattancherry did not stop even after the earlier crackdown.

“Even after catching Varun Dev, stuff was still reaching Mattancherry, which meant there was another player active on the ground,” an excise official told Onmanorama.

The intelligence wing subsequently began tracking Shifas. After following him for about a week, officers in plain clothes maintained surveillance on him round the clock for the final two days. The surveillance allegedly helped officials confirm his drug sales before they moved in.

The operation was led by Kochi Circle Excise Inspector Prasanth R, acting on specific inputs from the Excise Intelligence team. Apart from the Methamphetamine, which falls under commercial quantity, officers seized a mobile phone and ₹2.9 lakh in cash. According to the officers, the money had accumulated in just six days of alleged drug sales and had been kept in envelopes for distribution as a profit share to another accused.

Preliminary interrogation has indicated that the Methamphetamine was allegedly sourced from Bengaluru and transported to Kerala by train.

Officers suspect that Shifas was dealing in relatively large consignments, generally ranging from 500 g to one kilogram. These consignments were allegedly split into 20 g to 50 g packets and supplied to local-level peddlers, who would further divide them into 0.5 g and one-gram sachets for retail sales.

The investigation has also revealed the lengths allegedly taken to keep the operation away from the radar of conventional surveillance.

Instead of WhatsApp or Telegram, the accused allegedly relied on Signal and other privacy-focused communication applications. Some of these applications were reportedly disguised on the phone under ordinary app names such as ‘Weather’ and ‘Calculator’.

Investigators also found that devices and application profiles were registered using the names of family members rather than that of Shifas.

“The operation apparently left little banking trail either, with transactions allegedly being carried out exclusively in cash. We are now pursuing the alleged associate who was to receive a share of the recovered cash. Call records, suspected drug-delivery locations and location data relating to the absconding accused have been included in the mahazar,” sources said.

Shifas has been charged under the NDPS Act, with remand procedures underway.