Drugs for export worth Rs 25 cr, Drugs for export worth Rs 25 cr,

Foreign racketeers have helped manufacture drugs worth crores in Mumbai over the past few months, much of these for export, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said today after busting two factories during the weekend and arresting six Iranian chemists, a Colombian and a Dutchman of Indian origin.

They were manufacturing methamphetamine, an expensive stimulant, and ephedrine. The output figures cited by the NCB add up to drugs worth over Rs 25 crore.

The NCB seized drugs worth Rs 11.75 crore from one of the factories, in Mira Road area, involving Jacob Madathil, an Indian, and Colombian Luis Carlos, 41.The consignment was of ephedrine, extracted from tablets and meant for export to the Honduras.

From the other unit, in a shed in Thane, the NCB seized drugs worth Rs 13.75 crore, mainly methamphetamine. All of it had been prepared by six Iranian chemists had been flown in six months ago by Kisoor Nandan, 41, a Dutchman of Indian origin, who ran the factory at the shed in Ganga Industrial Estate in Asangaon, Shahapur. A search on Monday at a rented apartment in Oshiwara, where the Iranians lived, yielded raw materials, including amphetamine, worth over Rs 1 crore.

The NCB said "logistics and raw materials are increasingly becoming localised with orders, finance and expertise being flown in from outside". "There are many Iranian cartels in drug peddling but this is the first time Iranians have been found manufacturing stimulants here," said NCB zonal director Yashodan Wanage.

"Increasingly, India's vast pharmaceutical base is proving to be a good base for such working groups. We do not have experts in India who can make methamphetamine. So we are seeing foreigners, who are taking advantage of the infrastructure here, be it factories or raw materials for such drugs and then manufacturing them here for export," said Wanage.

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