City chemical factories turn hubs for drug manufacturing

HYDERABAD: Cyberabad police in association with Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) have raided three drug manufacturing units on the outskirts of Hyderabad and seized 250 kilos of ephedrine and methamphetamine worth Rs 10 crore. Police have also arrested 11 persons for manufacturing the contraband.
Acting on a tip off, the Special Operations Team (SOT) of Cyberabad police and the NCB sleuths raided Sai Priya Chemicals at Bacharam village of Hayathnagar, Gunasai Life Sciences Pvt Ltd at Dharmojigudem village of Choutuppal mandal on Tuesday and seized 185.6 kilos of amphetamine and 69 kilos of ephedrine along with other raw materials used in manufacturing the drugs.
Police arrested Fayaz Ahmed Rasool Sheikh, P Srinivas, Karikalan, Sunil Singh Sardar, Sameer Chandrashekhar Pinjar, Mohammad Ismail, Hashim Rabiul Sheikh, Mohammad Irfan Ansaz, Sayyad Vazeerulla Pasha, Adil Ansari, P Krishtaiah and Dayanand Manik Mudannar.
In addition to 255 kilos of narcotics, police also seized two cars, Rs 2 lakh in cash, 484 kilos of tartaric acid, 345 kilos of sodium borohydrate, 205 kilos of ethyl acetate, 200 litres of hydrogen paroxide and 125 kilos of OM nitro.
According to police, the prime accused, Fayaz, a scrap vendor from Bharauch in Maharashtra, is an associate of Rafiq, owner of Meera organic factory at Bharuch, and with the help of his friend, Fayyaz got into ephedrine-manufacturing racket.
As part of the business, Fayyaz used to strike deals with various chemical factories across the country to produce narcotics for him and then sell final product to customers. In this process, Fayyaz came in contact with the other arrested accused and, through Srinivas, Fayyaz had been supplying various raw materials required for the manufacturing of ephedrine and methamphetamine to the two chemical factories raided by the police on the outskirts of the city for past one year.
Fayyaz arrived in Hyderabad on Tuesday to oversee the transfer of ephedrine and methamphetamine to Karikalan. The other accused were helping Fayyaz in manufacturing narcotics. NCB sleuths also seized the two factories and the role of the owners and management in narcotics manufacturing was being probed.
Assistant commissioner of police (SOT) Ashok Kumar said the organisers were supposed to hand over the drug to some persons in Chennai.
“A few persons from Chennai were about to take the consignment when the racket was busted. In these villages, owners of godowns just grab an opportunity if someone comes forward to take the premises on rent without bothering to find out their activities,'' Ashok Kumar said.
Police said that in these illegal units, the raw materials shipped from Mumbai was being processed in Hayathnagar and later sent to Chennai for turning it into final product before being illegally sold in Chennai, Mumbai and a few other places.
In the past, units were sealed in Jeedimetla and other industrial areas for manufacturing drugs illegally on the pretext of operating a chemical factory.