Less than a week after the meth lab was busted in Chennai, in a case that drew comparisons with the popular TV series Breaking Bad, a similar saga unfolded in the National Capital Region. The police raided a manufacturing unit in the Kasana industrial area of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. They seized 95 kg of methamphetamine in both solid and liquid forms, as well as precursor chemicals like acetone and red phosphorus.
According to authorities, the drugs were being manufactured both for distribution within India and overseas. They had links to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG, described as one of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels. Originally an offshoot of the Milenio Cartel, CJNG has become infamous for its brutality, which includes the reported cannibalism of recruits who don’t make it through training, according to a 2017 report from Mexico News Daily.
The joint operation had widespread coordination across Delhi and its outskirts. Preliminary investigations have revealed the involvement of a Delhi-based businessman and a warden from Tihar Jail. The businessman, whose identity is not disclosed, was earlier arrested in a drugs-related case. It is suspected that the duo planned this scheme during the imprisonment of the businessman, engaging the services of a Mumbai-based chemist for production and outsourcing quality checks to the cartel.
While the businessman’s and the jail warden’s arrests are confirmed, there is no clarity regarding the cartel member’s detention who was sent to Delhi. The fourth arrest is of an unidentified person, while a fifth arrest is reported in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden, targeting a businessman associate.
It is the sixth major seizure the Narcotics Control Bureau has done this year, with total seizures of over 900 kg of mephedrone and 7,000 kg of its precursor chemicals earlier having been made in Gandhinagar and Amreli in Gujarat, Jodhpur, and Sirohi in Rajasthan and Bhopal.
The increasing rates of drug busts- particularly those involving labs producing synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and mephedrone- point to a disturbing trend: Cartels open more and smaller labs within industrial areas to avoid the tentative reaches of law enforcement. This lets cartels minimize waste and control toxic by-products generated through the processing phase.
