Meth Lab With Mexican Cartel Links Busted In NCR; 95 Kg Drugs Seized, Tihar Jail Warden Among 5 Arrested
The NCB stated that the lab was busted in the Kasna industrial area of Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar district on October 25. About 95 kg of methamphetamine was found on the premises.
Just a few days after a meth lab was busted in Chennai, another meth lab having links to a Mexican drug cartel was busted in Noida, leading to the arrest of five people, including a Tihar Jail warden and two Delhi-based businessmen, the Narcotics Control Bureau said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the NCB stated that the lab was busted in the Kasna industrial area of Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar district on October 25. About 95 kg of methamphetamine, a synthetic drug, was found on the premises in solid and liquid forms. Other chemicals like red phosphorous and acetone were also recovered from the spot in the raid.
Delhi Police's Special Cell was also roped in by the central anti-narcotics agency after the drug network was found to have "footprints across several places in the National Capital Region".
During a preliminary probe, it was unearthed that a Delhi-based businessman, who was present in the factory during the raid, along with the Tihar Jail warden, was "instrumental" in establishing the illegal meth factory. NCB Deputy Director General (Operations) Gyaneshwar Singh told news agency PTI that the accused procured chemicals required for the drugs from various sources and imported the machinery.
Meth Lab Linked To Mexico's 'Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion'
Singh also said that a Mumbai-based chemist was hired to manufacture the drug. After it was produced, the quality of the drug was tested by a Mexican drug cartel member residing in Delhi.
On October 27, the four people were arrested in connection with the meth production and produced before a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court. They have been sent to three-day NCB custody.
Thereafter, the fifth and an "important member" of the syndicate, who is also a "close associate" of the Delhi-based businessman, was arrested during follow-up action. He was nabbed from Delhi's Rajouri Garden area and will be produced before a court for his custody, Singh said.
According to the NCB, the Delhi businessman was earlier apprehended by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in another NDPS case and had been lodged in Tihar Jail. It was then that he came in contact with the warden, who eventually became his "accomplice".
The Mexican drug cartel identified in this case is CJNG -- Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion or Jalisco New Generation. According to Mexico News Daily, the CJMG began as an offshoot of the Milenio Cartel, which is considered to be one of the most feared groups in Mexico as they cannibalise new recruits who failed in their training.
The NCB said various chemicals like acetone, methylene chloride, sodium hydroxide, premium-grade ethanol, ethyl acetate, toluene, and imported machinery for manufacturing synthetic drugs were also seized from the lab.
DDG Singh said the agency was investigating the forward and backward linkages along with the financial trail and assets generated through this illegal drug trafficking.
So far, the agency claims to have busted nearly five clandestine labs this year including two in Gujarat's Gandhinagar and Amreli, two in Rajasthan's Jodhpur and Sirohi and one in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
In the Bhopal drugs case, about 907 kg of mephedrone, 7,000 kg of other chemicals, and machinery, were seized during a joint operation undertaken by the NCB and the Gujarat ATS at the Bagroda industrial estate.
The NCB is suspecting that the drug mafia is "increasingly shifting" to establishing such clandestine labs in industrial areas given the low cost of production of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and mephedrone, and also so that local law enforcement agencies do not get alerted by the routine transportation of material and machinery, toxic fumes coming out of chimneys during chemical processing, and waste generated from the laboratories.
In the recently drug cartel in Chennai, a meth lab run by a chemistry student and engineering graduates was busted. The police had recovered 245 grams of meth from the lab.
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