Oz drug lord setting up super laboratory in India

One of the most wanted drug lords of Australia, Hakan Ayik, is being suspected of setting up a "super" drug laboratory in India, media report said.

It is the second example of Australian bikie groups setting up operations in South Asia, where the precursor chemicals needed to make amphetamines can be legally sourced in large quantities in a bid to facilitate crime, according to a report in 'The Age' newspaper.

The laboratory, capable of exporting tonnes of methamphetamine globally, was probed by US Drug Enforcement Administration, Australian and Indian authorities in 2010.

The agencies suspect it was designed to facilitate industrial-scale illicit drug production.

The report further said that Law enforcement officials also believe that one of Melbourne's most notorious organised crime bosses, who is associated with the Black Uhlans outlaw motorcycle gang, has established links in Pakistan, including a senior government official, as part of plans to import drug or engage in money laundering.

The links in Pakistan also give associates of the crime figure access to lucrative Pakistani government contracts.

Meanwhile, Victoria Police acting Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer had earlier warned that Australian bikie clubs were expanding aggressively overseas, including in Spain, Thailand and Indonesia.

The report said that the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Indian authorities gathered intelligence revealing that Ayik had travelled in early 2010 to India, where he sought to buy an industrial pharmaceutical factory able to produce half a tonne of methamphetamine every week.

He is also suspected of having sourced from Indian suppliers large amounts of precursor chemicals that could be used to make a multimillion-dollar shipment of methamphetamine.