Made-in-India synthetic drugs hooked them

The Mexican mafia control a large majority of the worldwide cocaine trade. Their control over cultivation and processing of the substance in South America gave them the stranglehold.

They became interested in the Indian drug market, and stealthily, made inroads. Sources in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had told DNA, which was the first to report about the mafia operating from the city, that the flourishing production of synthetic drugs in India had aroused the interest of drug cartels all over the world, with everyone wanting to share the distribution profits.

“The Mexicans have developed some sort of a trade-off scheme with their Indian counterparts. They supply cocaine through Nigerian human couriers and in return, get a share of the synthetic drug manufacture and distribution trade emanating from India,” a senior officer of NCB’s Delhi unit told DNA.

The Mexican interest in the made-in-India synthetic drugs marked a change in outlook about the drug market here. “In the past, India was just an opium-growing country, which could also process it to heroin. Now, India is known for its synthetic drugs manufacturing scene. It is relatively easy to clandestinely manufacture synthetic party drugs here, and ship them out to the rest of the world through South Africa, using the well established networks of the international drug cartels,” said an NCB sleuth from
Mumbai.