Hyderabad: The Rs 45 crore drugs seized by Narcotic Control Bureau was secretly manufactured at a rented pharmaceutical facility in IDL Bolaram. Bengaluru-based scientist Venkat Rama Rao, 37, and his two assistants took the facility on rent and smuggled the drugs to Bengaluru and Chennai.
NCB officials are still hunting for the owner of the pharma company. An NCB source said Ramana Rao made around 230 kg. The suspects came to Bolaram thinking that enforcement was poor there.
The ingredients are cheap in Hyderabad. Their plan was to export the drug abroad. Amphetamine is smuggled to southeast Asian and African countries through the Chennai port. The earlier busts by Cyberabad police and NCB had exposed the nexus between Hyderabad's pharma companies and international markets.
Amphetamine’s production is banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Subst-ances Act in India. The drug is five times more expensive in Southeast Asia and Africa.
