NCB nabs controller of inter-state Alprazolam trafficking syndicate

The Mumbai zonal unit of the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) nabbed an alleged controller of an inter - state trafficking syndicate from which the agency had seized around 199 kg of an illicitly manufactured and diverted psychotropic substance, Alprazolam

MUMBAI: The Mumbai zonal unit of the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) nabbed an alleged controller of an inter - state trafficking syndicate from which the agency had seized around 199 kg of an illicitly manufactured and diverted psychotropic substance, Alprazolam.

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According to the agency source, the accused, A Hinge, who is from Pune, was arrested from an extended suburb in the course of the NCB’s search that began last October after the seizure of Alprazolam stock. The agency is investigating whether the accused lived outside Maharashtra, potentially in Uttar Pradesh, as per sources. Utilising information obtained from the interrogation, the NCB aims to arrest other accomplices and trace the source of the raw materials accessed by the syndicate, the sources added.

Based on an intelligence developed, the NCB intercepted a vehicle in October last year, at Shirur, Pune, whose examination yielded a suspicious powder and laboratory equipment. The NCB team then learned of the existence of an illegal, clandestine factory in an adjacent location.

On verification, it was found that there was a sophisticated, state-of-the-art laboratory in the factory shed whose examination yielded 173.35 kg Alprazolam, along with a huge stock of raw material required for its making, reactors and generators.

An accused present at the busted factory was nabbed and it was revealed that there was another such laboratory close by, at Narayangaon, Pune, which was also subsequently searched by the agency. At the second laboratory, 25.95 kg of illicitly manufactured Alprazolam was found, along with a huge stock of raw material.

The arrested accused Hinge, has been identified by the agency as the alleged financer and owner of one of the busted illicit laboratories, while he held a stake in the other laboratory, whose alleged owner was nabbed earlier, the sources said. As part of the probe, the agency has arrested four persons in the case so far, including an accused who went to Hyderabad for the alleged sale of Alprazolam and a female associate of Hinge. The agency is on the lookout of a chemist who allegedly helped the syndicate in the running of the two laboratories, the sources said.

It was alleged that the syndicate had allegedly taken care to suppress the strong smell of the illicitly made Alprazolam by locating the two units near a poultry farm and a Chikoo farm, NCB sources said. “The illegal alprazolam manufactured was sold in Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, especially for making illegal Toddy,” a source said.

Alprazolam is a psychotropic substance under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and it requires a licence for its manufacture, import or export.