Udupi as an Operational Hub for Intercontinental Drug Trafficking

Udupi as an Operational Hub for Intercontinental Drug Trafficking

Mangalore Today News Network

By Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon

Manglauru, June 6, 2025: Who would believe that the historical Temple town of Udupi was functioning as an operational hub for drug trafficking? What appeared to be an innocuous call centre in Udupi turned out to be the front of a sprawling international drug trafficking network. Operated by a man from Tamil Nadu, the Udupi-based centre coordinated narcotics orders from abroad and supplied them via New Delhi, with the operations spreading across India and more than 10 countries worldwide. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in an exemplary investigation, unearthed this sophisticated syndicate that used modern tools like cryptocurrency payments and anonymous drop-shipping methods to carry out illegal narcotics trade on a global scale. 

The coordinated operation dubbed ‘Operation Med-Max marks one of the biggest cracking of a tech-enabled drug trafficking network operating in India. NCB’s operations began with the arrest of two B Pharma graduates in New Delhi in May 2025, who were travelling in a car, which was intercepted near Mandi House (Bengali Market) in Delhi in which they were carrying 3.7kg of Tramadol tablets. Tramadol has been notified as a drug under the NDPS Act by the Finance Ministry in April 2018.Their confessions led investigators to a stockist in Roorkee and subsequently to a key associate in Mayur Vihar in New Delhi. This associate revealed the global network functioning from Udupi in Karnataka State. The main person has been identified as one Suresh Kumar K from Tamil Nadu, who set up a call centre named Med Max Digital Centre from Hayagreevanagara in Kunjeebettu, Udupi and facilitated international drug supplies. 

NCB had discovered a month ago data linked to 50 international consignments — notably 29 intra-USA shipments, 18 within Australia, and others to Estonia, Spain and Switzerland – following which the DEA, Interpol and Australian authorities were roped in. The Udupi establishment was operating a fully functional call centre, employing nearly 10 individuals. The team handled international sales enquiries through a B2B portal and processed advance payments in cryptocurrency before routing them to supply module operators abroad. Investigations further uncovered that the Udupi call centre was instrumental in coordinating shipments, managing clients, and recruiting re-shippers. The syndicate operated through encrypted messaging apps, used anonymous drop shippers, and accepted payments through crypto and digital wallets. But no drugs were manufactured or distributed from Udupi.

Surprisingly, this syndicate did not sell the drugs within India. They operated through multiple reshippers in different countries. These reshippers after receiving the contraband drugs shipped it within their countries. NCB is probing the sources of the drugs in India. Acting on NCB’s information the US DEA tracked the data trail of the US consignment and arrested a bulk re-shipper and money launderer in Alabama along with a massive haul of restricted and prohibited drugs. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested Joel Hall, a major re-shipper based in Alabama. Authorities recovered over 17,000 tablets of controlled medication, multiple cryptocurrency wallets, and five active parcels containing Zolpidem, a commonly abused sedative. The DEA has also indicted an Indian-American financier linked to laundering the syndicate’s earnings. The syndicate operated on encrypted communication platforms such as Telegram, relied on cryptocurrency payments, PayPal, Western Union and used anonymous international drop shippers to evade detection.

In a connected investigation in Australia, anti-drug authorities dismantled a clandestine pill manufacturing unit, where   drugs such as Tramadol and others were being manufactured. Indian traffickers were taking orders in bulk and coordinating with the owner for supply within Australia.

As early as 2023, in its Annual Report, the International Narcotics Control Board, had highlighted the daunting task facing law enforcement authorities to monitor and prosecute online drug activities. Using social media and other online platforms means drug traffickers can advertise their products to large global audiences. Various conventional social media platforms are being used as local marketplaces and inappropriate content is widely accessible to children and adolescents.

Encryption methods, anonymous browsing on the darknet and cryptocurrencies are commonly used to avoid detection, posing difficulties for prosecuting online trafficking offences. Offenders can move their activities to territories with less intensive law enforcement action or lighter sanctions or base themselves in countries where they can evade extradition. The sheer scale of online activity is an added complication. In one case in France, law enforcement authorities collected more than 120 million text messages from 60,000 mobile phones!

A number of researchers have developed efficient methods for qualitative analysis of different types of cyber transactions. Some methods are called conversation analysis, network analysis (qualitative), biographical analysis, sociolinguistic analysis Dramaturgic analysis or social tragedy, and textual analysis. Software Applications use deceptive language to conduct their dealings, such as “High there” in the United States, known as the “tinder marijuana” and “Who is happy” in Brazil, known as “Foursquare marijuana”. Software applications are now able to identify people and groups of friends, and potential drug users, by using big data analysis.   But, it becomes vulnerable to malicious hackers, seeking to attract people to the black market in drugs being sold in cyberspace. Another associated problem is the illegal and anonymous use of virtual currency. 

The best known virtual currency is the Bitcoin, to obtain it, it is not necessary to reveal the identity. For shopping in the cyber world black markets, as a rule, the method of payment is with such coins. Providers who set up access to websites that sell illegal products do not reveal the IP number, which would be the only way to identify the individual who conducted the transaction, and the transaction is completely anonymous through these coins.

The above occurs due to the advance of new techniques and creative alternatives that are constantly emerging in accordance with the technological advancement. The legislative process of any country would not be able to match the speed of such technological evolution, regardless of the political system that they follow. Throughout the world, most laws are grossly inadequate in engaging virtual currencies.

Operation Med-Max is evidence that international networking by enforcement agencies is a key asset in tackling the entire drug smuggling supply chain functioning in the cyber space, from source to street sale, and to disrupt and dismantle networks at every stage of the drug trafficking process.

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Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon, IRS (Rtd), Ph.D. (Narcotics)

Former Director General of National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics & Multi-Disciplinary School Of Economic Intelligence India; Fellow, James Martin Centre For Non Proliferation Studies, USA; Fellow, Centre for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia, USA; Public Administration, Maxwell School of Public Administration, Syracuse University, U.S.A.; AOTS Scholar, Japan. He can be contacted at shreemenon48@gmail.com