Banned drug worth Rs 7 cr seized, 5 held

Five persons were today arrested and 14 kgs of methamphetamine, a banned psychotropic drug, worth Rs seven crore in the international market was seized from them, police said.
Sleuths of the Special Operation Team (East Zone) arrested the five accused - I Ramesh, Santosh Kumar, B Anil, Roshan and K Ramchander, a release from Cyberabad police said.
During the operation, the police team seized methamphetamine drug, which was to be transported to Chennai, along with other raw material and drug-making apparatus from the five accused, it added.
"Based on a tip-off that some persons were transporting the drug to Chennai, which is prohibited under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the SOT along with Keesara Police intercepted one Santosh Kumar and took him into custody along with the substance.

"Santosh led the SOT to one factory/lab in Rampally village under Keesara police station limits and the main accused I Ramesh along with other accused were also taken into custody. Sixty kg of raw material, including tartaric acid, 800 grams of wet methamphetamine drug and drug making apparatus was seized from the lab," police said.
The accused Ramesh has been into the business of supplying chemicals to the dealers since last 15 years and using his experience in the field he gained knowledge about the demand of some banned drugs, which have high monetary value in the international market, they said.

A few years back, he started making efforts on this front and could garner the support of a few persons, who are already in this field. He set up his own factory/lab at Rampally village and started preparing Methamphetamine drug by procuring raw material from different sources, police said.
The drug is valued at Rs 40-50 lakh per kg in the international market.
"Methamphetamine is a banned drug under the NDPS Act. This is a highly addictive drug which is dangerous than Cocaine and Morphine and it is neurotoxic, addictive and produce toxicity symptoms at high doses," the release added.