Ahmedabad: A suspected narcotics ‘dead drop’ was uncovered in Vatva on Saturday evening after an autorickshaw driver found a concealed packet containing a white powder while cleaning his vehicle and alerted the Ahmedabad Crime Branch.According to a complaint filed with the Detection of Crime Branch police, Akash Chunara, 28, was cleaning his autorickshaw near Navapura Crossroads on Shantidham Jain Tirth Road around 3.30pm when he noticed a cloth-wrapped packet hidden between the yellow hood and a wooden panel behind the right side of the rear seat.Suspicious about its contents, Chunara examined the packet and found a white powder inside. Believing it could be a narcotic substance, he informed a crime branch constable through a WhatsApp call. He told investigators that he did not know who had placed the packet in the vehicle or when it had been left there.A crime branch team, accompanied by panch witnesses and a photographer, reached the spot and inspected the autorickshaw. Police said no other contraband was found during the search of the vehicle or the driver.A preliminary test conducted by an FSL scientific officer using a narcotics detection kit indicated that the substance was mephedrone. The seized drug weighed 18.6 grams.Police estimated the value of the mephedrone at Rs 55,980 and collected samples for detailed forensic analysis.Investigators suspect the packet may have been planted as a ‘dead drop’, a method used to conceal contraband at a designated location for pickup by another person at a later stage.A case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has been registered against an unidentified person.