Massive haul of party drugs in Gujarat

Ahmedabad

In a joint operation, the city crime branch and state Anti-Terrorist Squad teams on Thursday night conducted raids at Riya Industries on Vehlala-Zak road here and seized 1,364 kg of Ephedrine and arrested the owner Narendra Kachha. Police has also named the son of a former Congress MLA Bhavsinh Rathod, Kishorsinh as kingpin of the drug racket, who is yet to be arrested.

“Kishorsinh Rathod and a Mumbai-based Jay Mukhi had procured this drug from Sholapur in Maharashtra from another person named Punit. They gave this durg to Kachha to convert it into crystal math (methamphetamine), a party drug,” Joint Commissioner of Police heading the crime branch, J K Bhatt said.

“Kachha, who has a BSC degree is associated with pharmaceutical business for the last 20 years. Earlier he used to work in different companies and has a wide experience on how to make the party drug from ephedrine,” he said.  Ephedrine is a drug used to prevent low blood pressure and also used for asthma, narcolepsy and obesity. It is a Schedule A controlled substance and as per the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act section 9(1) its purchase, sale and possession and import, export are banned without license.

“Crystal Math (methamphetamine) is prepared from Ephedrine which has a huge demand in India and abroad,” Bhatt said.

“They had plans to export this party drug to European countries and also sell it in India,” Bhatt said.

We have formed teams to nab the accused,” he said. “This is the biggest seizure of drug in Gujarat and among one of the biggest in the country also,” he claimed.