Secluded, independent houses in Greater Noida being used as drug factories: Police

Police have been keeping a watch on such houses in Greater Noida and it was their vigil that led to the latest bust, said officers

To have a Nigerian national greet him with ‘Ram Ram’ came as a surprise to Ashok, a milkman in Greater Noida’s Omicron-1 sector. But what surprised him even more was to learn on Thursday that the Nigerian was running a drug factory out of a one-storey newly constructed rented house, right in front of his dairy.

Located in a sparsely populated sector, the house where the four foreigners were allegedly running a meth lab for the last two weeks, does not have any occupied house in its vicinity (above). (HT Photo)

Located in a sparsely populated sector, the house where the four foreigners were allegedly running a meth lab for the last two weeks, does not have any occupied house in its vicinity. One house next to it is still under construction, while on the other side lies an empty plot, said investigators.

The only activity near the house centres around a dairy being run out of a 370m plot located a few plots away. Ashok, the owner of this dairy, said he only saw the foreigners during evenings, walking along the street.

“None of them spoke very much, but one of them seemed friendly, and would often greet me with ‘Ram Ram’. I was quite surprised to see a foreigner greeting me this way, but I assumed he must have been in India for a long time,” said Ashok, a resident of Mathurapur village, located across the sector.

“The house was put up for rent in the market just six months ago after its construction was completed. A family from Bihar moved in but left after about four months. The standard rate for such a house here is ₹20,000 -25,000 a month. The foreigners moved in just earlier this month,” he said.

With this being the third such meth lab bust, police investigators said a pattern has emerged out of the type of locations preferred by alleged drug manufacturers.

“The first bust was running out of a three-storey residential building in Theta-2. That one also did not have an occupied house near it. The second house was running out of Mitra Enclave near Omega-1 sector. While that sector was a bit more populated, the house rented out by the foreigners did not have any occupied houses nearby,” said a Yatendra Kumar, in-charge of the SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team that was part of the raid.

SM Khan, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, said the city has ample locations that are secluded and sparsely populated.

“The foreigner drug traffickers look out for such houses. These h,ouses are most likely located in sectors that are right next to urban villages, where most of the plots either have under construction houses or are empty,” said Khan.

He added that in the latest case, it was police alertness that led to the bust.

“Unlike the earlier meth labs which had been running for over a year, this one was just in its initial stages of setup. This was because we have increased our manual and technical surveillance and police are on alert, especially in such secluded residential sectors,” said Khan.