Hyderabad: The international drug mafia is using Hyderabad to carry on their business. Some registered pharmaceutical companies in the city's suburbs are being covertly used by the mafia temporarily to manufacture banned synthetic drugs.
Cyberabad police officials say the racketeers pay huge amounts to the owners of pharmaceutical factories and use their facilities to escape enforcement agencies. In a recent drug haul by the police and the Narcotic Control Bureau, and in another seizure at Chandanagar in December 2013, it was found that banned drugs worth crores were manufactured and were about to be smuggled to Southeast Asia. Officials say unless they get a tip off it’s difficult to track illegal drug manufacturing.
While the police and NCB arrested 12 members of a gang with banned drugs and ingredients worth Rs 10 crore two days ago, a three-member gang with drugs worth Rs 2 crore was busted in December 2013.
Psychotropic drugs like Methamphetamine, Ketamine, Ephedrine, Amphetamine and many other drugs are being manufactured on a large scale. The ingredients are brought from Mumbai. Sources say that gangs connected to the Asian drug mafia shifted their manufacturing base to Hyderabad from Mumbai and Chennai, as enforcement agencies go easy on registered companies.
“The main culprit invol-ved in the recent bust used to make drugs in Mumbai earlier. After his arrest he shifted to Hyderabad,” an official said. Police official J. Ashok Kumar said that two pharmaceutical companies, one in Hayatnagar and Guna Sai Life Sciences in Nalgonda district, which were involved in manufacturing banned drugs were registered companies, and had rented their facilities to the racketeers. “We have launched a hunt to nab the company’s owners,” he added.
After production, the drugs are sent to Chennai via road, from where it is exported to Southeast Asia. “In a recent case, a person named Karikalan from TN was supposed to take the drugs to Chennai, from where it would be exported to Malaysia,” said inspector V. Umender. Experts say that it is high time pharmaceutical companies are brought under the scanner.
