High-grade meth lab busted in Greater Noida house, drugs worth Rs 200 crore seized

NOIDA: Nine foreigners who came to India on student visas set up a Breaking Bad-style meth enterprise, except they were more organised and scaled up quicker than the fictitious Walter White, the protagonist of the TV show who started cooking meth in a travel wagon parked in wilderness.
The nine foreigners rented a three-storey house in the quiet neighbourhood of Theta II in Greater Noida and turned it into a sophisticated meth-cooking lab, flasks, beakers, burettes, funnels et al, to produce high-quality meth, an operation they ran for at least a year before the police discovered it on Wednesday morning.

Eight Nigerian men and one Senegalese national were arrested and 46kg of methamphetamine (MDMA) - estimated to be worth Rs 200 crore in the international market - was seized from the house along with reagents and chemicals to produce drugs worth another Rs 100 crore, police said, making it one of the biggest drug hauls in the state.
The lab functioned from the second floor of the house to produce mainly MDMA, a party drug popularly known as ecstasy, which is chemically similar to stimulants and hallucinogens that produce feelings of increased energy.
Police commissioner Laxmi Singh said the raids followed months of intelligence gathering and eventually a tip-off that came on Wednesday. "We had information about a drug racket operating in Greater Noida. Following the tip-off, a policeman posed as a buyer of drugs and we arrested two of the gang members from the Dhadha roundabout with around 5.5kg of meth. They led us to the three-storey house in Jaitpur-Vaispur (in Theta II), where the lab had been set up to produce the drug in its purest form. Seven persons were arrested from there," the police chief said.
The nine arrested were identified as Anudum Emmanuel, Ajoku Ubaka, Daniel Azuh, Levi Uzochukw, Jacob Emefiele, Kofie, Chidi Ijiagwa, Ajoku Klechi (all from Nigeria) and Dramemond of Senegal. They are between 28 and 35 years old. Police said they are probing if they were staying illegally in the country.
The probe's primary focus is the extent of the gang's network. "This is the biggest drug haul in Uttar Pradesh. We are trying to trace the gang's financial transactions, supply lines and possible links with terror groups. The gang not only had a dense network in north India, but may have spread their tentacles in other countries as well. The chemicals used to make the drugs were sourced locally. Police teams are working to trace these suppliers as well," Singh said.
The police investigation will also cover those who may have brought drugs from the gang. "We will question those who supplied the chemicals and try to trace their distribution network. We have found that most of the orders were placed in bulk and some of the payments done in cryptocurrency as well. We can't rule out their links with terror groups," the CP said.
The gang members had already acquired training in cooking meth from their countries, according to the cops.
Saad Miya Khan, DCP (Greater Noida), who led the Wednesday morning raid, said the accused could not produce any rent agreement. "They said the documents were with another person. We are trying to trace him. We have informed the Nigerian and Senegalese embassies and contacted the anti-narcotics task force and the Narcotics Control Bureau," said Khan.
The officer said when his team raided the house, some of the accused tried to jump off the three-storey building.
"There was intoxicating smell coming from the house. It's obvious because they were cooking MDMA and all the raw materials were kept on the floor. Some even tried to jump off the building in order to escape arrest," he added.
The foreigners had taken the house on rent about a year ago. The owner will be called for questioning soon, the DCP said.
The raid was carried out by cops from the Beta 2 and Dadri police stations and SWAT members. The police are trying to find out when the gang had started to make meth from the rented house. "They had in-depth knowledge of various chemical compositions. The drugs may have been supplied to other countries as well. We are getting in touch with the authorities concerned. It is suspected that the gang may have sold drugs worth around Rs 1,000 crore," Khan said.
The raids came a month after three persons were arrested with 289 MDMA pills worth Rs 25 lakh from Noida.
In May 2019, over 1,800kg of pseudoephedrine was seized from a Greater Noida house and three foreigners arrested in a raid carried out by the NCB.