Summary:
Sources in police and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said that such secret labs produce synthetic drugs like methamphetamine (MD) using, among other ingredients, pseudoephedrine.
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GIDC has been under the radar for notorious operations in recent times.
Sources in police and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said that such secret labs produce synthetic drugs like methamphetamine (MD) using, among other ingredients, pseudoephedrine.
“We have been keeping a close watch on several GIDC units in Ahmedabad.
We got an input that drugs are being manufactured according to demand,” said an NCB officer.
The officer said that the drug mafia have been sourcing various ingredients locally.
“They do not import the ingredients nor do they bring them from other states,” the officer said.
“So the agencies and cops did not get a whiff of the drug racket.”
A drug peddler from the Bapunagar area said that unemployed chemists are picked to manufacture the synthetic drugs.
“We have several chemists who either work in laboratories or at manufacturing units,” the peddler said.
“They can even work from home, giving instructions to our workers who then manufacture drugs like MD in labs.”
He said that small players in the drug trade hire premises under the pretext of manufacturing pharmaceuticals or cosmetics.
“Earlier, the drugs used to be brought in from Mumbai but later the production began in Ahmedabad,” the peddler said.In August this year, the NCB had busted an MD manufacturing lab in the Vapi town of Valsad and had seized 4.5kg of the drug worth Rs 85 lakh.
Since then, surveillance has been maintained over GIDC estates in the city but the agencies are yet to collect concrete evidence to book the drug manufacturers.
“These drug mafia work very rapidly.
They follow the demand-and-supply principle,” said another NCB officer.