Punjab police on Friday recovered over 600 kilo of precursor chemicals worth Rs 600 crore in the international market after interrogation of drug mafia smashed recently.
Investigations into the synthetic drug racket, busted by Punjab Police recently with the arrests of mastermind Arjuna awardee Jagdish Singh alias Bhola and his four accomplices, major supplier Jagjit Singh Chahal and Manjinder Singh Aulakh, led to the recovery of over 600 kilo of precursor chemicals estimated to be worth Rs 600 crore in the international market.
The recovery was made on the basis of disclosures made by Chahal from his Baddi-located factory in Himachal Pradesh — MBP Pharmaceuticals limited, said Patiala SSP Hardyal Singh Mann. He said that Punjab Police recovered over 600 kilo of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and other precursor chemicals from that factory. Mann said that estimated cost of precursor chemicals was Rs 1 crore per kilo while the estimated international price of synthetic drugs like ICE (M-amphetamine) is Rs 5 crore per kilo.
He said that Health Department officials have been associated with seizure for quantification of the seized precursors including various components, checking stock registers and other documents to verify authorisation or permission for storing these precursor chemicals at the factory, and also to ascertain modus operandi of illegal diversion of precursor chemicals from medicine sector to illegal manufacture of synthetic drugs like ICE.
Approximately 60 per cent of precursor chemical was converted into synthetic drug by illegal manufacturing process - one kilo of precursor yields 600 grams of synthetic drug — with a possible sale price of Rs 3 crore for an investment of Rs 1 crore in the illegal drug trade, excluding maintenance and overhead charges of manufacturing equipment, elaborated Mann. “Such high profit margins are driving many drug smugglers from traditional drugs to manufacture and distribution of synthetic drugs,” he said adding that further investigations were ongoing.