The drugs and raw materials that were recovered from the unit in Beta 1
A cloth factory that made the expensive drug MDMA has been busted by the police in Greater Noida, neighbouring Delhi.
The Gautam Buddh Nagar Police raided the drug manufacturing unit being run from Mitra Society in Greater Noida's Beta 1 today.
Drugs and raw materials worth Rs 150 crore have been recovered and three foreigners have been arrested.
This is the second such operation that has been uncovered in the city in about a fortnight, with another unit being raided on May 16.
The unit raided today was being operated out of a house where the accused were pretending to run a cloth factory. They would hide the drugs in bundles of cloth and smuggle them to Mumbai, the northern states and even Nepal and Bangladesh, the police said.
A video of the unit points to a sophisticated operation with the use of beakers, assorted chemicals and rubber tubing to mask the smells and smoke.
"Statements of the accused have pointed to the existence of two shell companies which were used to smuggle the drugs abroad. They have also said that a drop box in Delhi was being used to courier the drugs outside the country. The shell companies are being probed and a police team is at the spot today to investigate the drop box," said Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissioner Lakshmi Singh.
"The seized drugs and raw materials are worth approximately Rs 150 crore in the international market," she added.
The Commissioner also said that about 50 kg of drugs, with an estimated value of approximately Rs 450 crore, have been seized in Greater Noida in the past 15 days.