NEW DELHI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in a joint operation with the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, has dismantled a syndicate of drug manufacturers who had clandestinely established a laboratory in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh that was making synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, a senior NCB officer said on Tuesday.
The NCB has also unearthed links between the meth lab and the Mexican cartel CJNG (Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion), considered by the Mexican government to be the second most powerful drug cartel in the country after the Sinaloa Cartel.
The meth prepared at the Noida lab was tested by a member of the Mexican cartel residing in Delhi.
The heavily militarised CJNG has its own "Special Operation Group" that operates in armoured vehicles, having drones and rocket-propelled grenades.
Cannibalising victims is reportedly one of the ways in which the cartel trains newly recruited gang members.
The NCB arrested four people including the warden of Tihar Jail and a Delhi-based businessman. Apart from them, a Mumbai-based chemist who manufactured the drug was also arrested. A total of 95 kg of methamphetamine valued at around Rs 100 crore was seized.
All the four accused, whose identities have not been shared by the agency, were produced before a local court which sent them to three days of police custody.
Deputy Director General (NCB) Gyaneshwar Singh said they received crucial information about a drug lab in the Delhi-NCR area making synthetic drugs like methamphetamine for export to other countries as well as consumption in India.
Acting on the information, the NCB along with Delhi Police conducted a search operation on October 25 and found a factory in Kasna Industrial Area of Noida.
"We found about 95 kg of methamphetamine in solid and liquid forms. Chemicals like Acetone, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylene Chloride, Premium grade Ethanol, Toluene, Red phosphorus, Ethyl Acetate etc and imported machinery for manufacturing was also found," the DDG said.
During preliminary enquiry, it came out that a Delhi businessman and a Tihar Jail warden found inside the illegal factory at the time of the raid were instrumental in establishing it, 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 senior officer said.
"Their forward and backward linkages, financial trail and assets generated by the accused through illegal drug trafficking are being ascertained," the officer said.