New Delhi: Just days after a meth lab was closed in Chennai, similar scenes came to light in the national capital region, echoing the TV show "Breaking Bad." In a major operation against the drug cartel, a joint team of NCB and Delhi police raided a production site in the Kasana industrial area of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, where they found 95 kg of meth in solid and liquid forms, along with chemicals like acetone and red phosphorus.
Chemicals like Acetone, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylene Chloride, Premium grade Ethanol, Toluene, Red phosphorous, Ethyl Acetate and imported machinery for manufacturing were also found.
"The Special Cell of Delhi police also participated in the operation as the drug network had footprints across several places in NCR of Delhi," an NCB spokesperson said. The raid on a tip-off that a laboratory had been established in NCR of Delhi for the production of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine for export to other countries as well as consumption in India, in which members of the Mexican CJNG drug cartel (Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion), were also involved.
"During the preliminary inquiry, it was revealed that a Delhi-based businessman, who was found inside the factory at the time of the raid, along with a Tihar Jail warden, was instrumental in establishing the illegal factory, procuring chemicals required for manufacturing of Methamphetamine from various sources and importing the machinery. The businessman had previously been arrested by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), in an NDPS case and had been lodged in Tihar jail where he came in contact with the jail warden, who became his accomplice," the NCB spokesperson said.
The official said that a Mumbai-based chemist was roped in by them to manufacture the drug and the quality of the drug was tested by a member of a Mexican cartel residing in Delhi. All four persons have been arrested by NCB and were produced before a magistrate on Sunday. They were remanded in a three-day police custody.
"In follow-up action, one important member of the syndicate and close associate of a Delhi-based businessman was apprehended from the Rajouri Garden area of Delhi and will be produced before the court concerned," the official said. Their forward and backward linkages, financial trail and assets generated by the accused through illegal drug trafficking are being ascertained, the official added.
It is worth mentioning that, the NCB this year, has busted such clandestine labs at five locations namely Gandhinagar and Amreli in Gujarat, Jodhpur and Sirohi in Rajasthan and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Earlier this month, a clandestine lab was busted in a joint operation with Gujarat ATS in Bagroda Industrial Estate of Bhopal, in which about 907 kgs of Mephedrone in solid and liquid forms and about 7000 kgs of various chemicals, along with the machinery, were seized.
It is believed that considering the low cost of production of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and Mephedrone, the drug mafia is increasingly shifting to setting up such clandestine labs in industrial areas so that local law enforcement agencies do not get unduly alerted because of transportation of material and machinery, waste generated from the laboratories and toxic fumes coming out of chimneys during chemical processing.
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