Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 5 (IANS): Days after the Mumbai unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) recovered 198 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 9 kg high-quality cocaine, worth Rs 1,476 crore, the Kerala Excise officials on Wednesday raided the business unit of one of the prime accused near Kochi.

Keralite businessman Vijin Varghese was arrested by the Mumbai unit for the drugs that was found hidden in a consignment of fruits.

While he is in the DRI custody in Mumbai, his business partner Manzoor, who hails from Kasargode, is on the run.

Vijin, his brother Jibin along with their partner Albin have a unit at Kalady near here under the name Yummito International Foods, where a team of Excise officials conducted the raids.

They inspected hundreds of cartons of fruits that was packed, but failed to get anything.

Incidentally this big haul by the DRI was based on an information received through inputs that drugs in high quantity will be smuggled into the country.

According to the inputs, contraband substance would be arriving from South Africa as part of a consignment of fruits.

The agency kept working on the input, following which on Friday evening, a team of DRI officers intercepted a truck in Vashi. The truck was carrying imported oranges.

Incidentally two days back, a high-level team of DRI had conducted inspection at their factor at Kalady, but so far they have not been able to recover anything and the report is that the Excise is yet to get any leads.