UP: Meth lab with Mexican drug cartel link busted; Tihar jail warden among 4 held

A businessman, a jail warden, and a chemist — with links to a dreaded Mexican drug cartel — had allegedly joined hands to cook meth in a suburb of Uttar Pradesh’s industrial hub of Greater Noida. However, their crime fiction-style operation was short-lived, as police cracked down on their lab in Kasana on Friday (October 25) and seized 95 kg of methamphetamine, both solid and liquid.

This came less than a week after a similar meth lab was busted in Chennai, with five young engineering graduates and a postgraduate chemistry student being arrested.

Links with ‘cannibalistic’ drug cartel

The meth being produced in Kasana were reportedly meant for sale in the domestic market as well as abroad, with Mexico’s Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), being involved, says media reports. Apparently, CJNG members cannibalise new recruits who fail their training, according to Mexican media reports.

The accused businessman is based in Delhi and reportedly has a history of narcotics-related offences. He was arrested in an earlier drugs-related case and lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail, where he met the second accused in the case, a warden.

Also read: Omar Abdullah runs 21-km half-marathon ‘for a drug-free J&K’

Mexican drug cartel member in Delhi

The duo allegedly came up with the plan to cook meth and roped in the Mumbai-based chemist for production. The warden allegedly helped the businessman procure the chemicals and equipment necessary to produce drugs.

The Mexican cartel was to take care of quality checks. Apparently, one of the Mexican gang members had been living in Delhi who was also taken into custody along with the trio. Later, an associate of the businessman was arrested from Delhi’s Rajouri Garden though it is not yet clear how this person was associated with the crime.

A tip-off

A joint team of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Delhi Police’s Special Cell conducted the raid in Greater Noida based on specific inputs. While the businessman was found on the spot 95 kg of meth as well as precursor chemicals such as acetone and red phosphorous, along with advanced manufacturing machinery, were seized.

The four accused were remanded in three-day police custody on October 27.

Also read: ‘Malicious campaign’: KTR slams ‘rave party’ charges after raid at relative's house

Shift in narcotics operations

A series of drug rackets has been busted this year with the Delhi Police’s Special Cell seizing drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, worth Rs 7,600 crore in two raids in October itself. Earlier, too, cocaine worth Rs 2,000 crore was seized in a raid in West Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar. Reportedly, all these were stashes of the same drug syndicate with links to suppliers in the UK and West Asia.

The NCB has also busted similar narcotics gangs in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh this year. Reports say gangs are now shifting to smaller labs in industrial areas to evade detection. In the Greater Noida case, authorities are now trying to trace the financial trails of the drug operation.