`Narcos, Breaking Bad Of Noida`: UP Police After Biggest MDMA Haul Worth Rs 200 Crores

New Delhi: A police team raided an isolated house in Greater Noida where a group of foreigners were making meth in the middle of the night, causing some of them to try to jump off the three-storey building, news agency PTI quoted officials as saying on Wednesday. The police were also stunned by what they saw – a complex setup for producing the synthetic drug, strong intoxicating smell inside the compound and the foreigners wearing high-quality face masks. “It looked like what we have seen in web series like ‘Narcos’ and ‘Breaking Bad’,” PTI quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Saad Miya Khan, who led the raid. Nine people – eight from Nigeria and one from Senegal – were arrested from the house near Jaitpur-Vaispur village in Sector Theta 2, police said, adding 46 kilograms of “white, purest” form of MDMA was seized from the spot, worth Rs 200 crore.

A team of Beta 2 police station and SWAT also seized raw material that could be used to make MDMA worth Rs 100 crore more. “The police had been getting information about such a syndicate of synthetic drug spreading in Greater Noida and Noida. Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh had given clear instructions to the department to crack down on illegal drugs and cannabis,” Khan said.

So far, in 2023, in Greater Noida region alone, the police have seized around 1,800 kg of illegal drugs, including cannabis, the DCP said. "This is the biggest seizure of meth or MDMA in Uttar Pradesh by the state police," Khan said. According to police officials, in May 2019 over 1,800-kg pseudoephedrine was seized in Greater Noida and three foreigners arrested in an operation by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

But the Wednesday busting of the meth-cooking gang, which has a supply chain in entire Delhi-NCR, was a long-drawn process which took around three months to culminate, the IPS officer said. The process involved working on manual intelligence and network of police informers, he said.

"The police team had trapped two of the accused into fixing a deal for supply of the synthetic drugs. The duo was held near Dadha roundabout in Greater Noida when they were in a Toyota Etios car. "These two men, who were found in possession of 5.50 kg MDMA, then led the police team to the three-storeyed house where their other partners had set up the laboratory to cook meth in large amount," Khan added. The seven persons who were found inside the house, which had a green mesh around it, had high-quality masks on their face, he said.

"There was intense intoxicating smell inside the compound and they were caught cooking the MDMA in a sophisticated setup with a large quantity of raw material kept on the floor. Some of them even tried to jump off the building in order to escape arrest," he said. Meanwhile, an FIR was being lodged and further legal proceedings being carried out against the nine accused, with DCP Khan saying the police would seek their custody from a court for further investigation.