The reverse engineering employed by drug cartels to extract pseudoephedrine from pharmaceutical products has worrying national and global implications, the NCB said.
NCB says Thane ‘kitchen lab’ housed international drug traffickers
MUMBAI: The reverse engineering employed by drug cartels to extract pseudoephedrine from pharmaceutical products has worrying national and global implications, the Narcotics Control Bureau said on Friday.
NCB Director-General KC Verma said the peddlers holed up in their “kitchen laboratory” in Thane were using extracted pseudoephedrine to manufacture amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS). The operation was busted on Wednesday.
By and large ATS are used as ingredients to process and manufacture various ‘designer’ drugs like Ecstasy, which are mainly used at rave parties.
In normal circumstances, pseudoephedrine — in tablet and syrup forms — is used to treat nasal and
sinus congestion.
Destination Australia
Those arrested on Wednesday - Rafael Garcia (Mexican), Rosli Bin Mohammad (a Singapore national), Shaikh Sahib Tajuddin (also from Singapore), members of an international drug syndicate — were set to ship 290kg of pseudoephedrine to Australia.
Explaining the reverse-engineering trend, Verma said, “In the past two years there has been a shortage of ephedrine or ephedrine-based products in the US. Since pseudoephedrine is the basic building block for the manufacture of other types of drugs, it is in demand among drug peddlers and international criminals.”
It is cause for alarm because pseudoephedrine is the “precursor chemical for several types of psychotropic drugs like amphetamines”. NCB officers said those arrested may have had the expertise to extract pseudoephedrine, which stimulates the central nervous system.
They, however, ruled out the possibility that the pseudoephedrine and the drugs derived from it were meant for local consumption.
“Members of the drugs racket were under watch for more than seven months,” CL Mahar, NCB Mumbai zone director, said. “Only after we were sure of what they were doing in the Thane farmhouse did we decide to arrest them.”
Five nabbed
Five persons were arrested under section 9(A) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
The NCB has six months to frame charge-sheets against the suspects. The agency has sought custody of three people. Parvin Patil, a supplier of pseudoephedrine tablets, was also arrested by the NCB on a charge of connivance.
All five suspects are also being held on charges of conspiracy and unlawful possession. Shaikh Sahib Tajuddin, one of those arrested, is an international drug trafficker who has been convicted in countries like Costa Rica and France.
He was caught trying to smuggle 500kg of hashish via Pakistan. He manages an international drug syndicate spanning Australia, South Africa, Europe, and southeast Asia. He has already served 19 years in prison in the case.
d_anupam@dnaindia.net
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