Two Burmese nationals among five arrested in drug racket

With the arrest of five persons, including two Burmese nationals, police here today claimed to have smashed an international drug racket and seized pseudoephedrine tablets used for making party drugs worth Rs 15 crore.

Burmese nationals Zel Khan Mong (46) and Dongh Lian Kham (41), Lianza Daula (46) and C Zoram Thanga (28) from Mizoram and Vikas Bathla (43) of Delhi were apprehended on March 29, Ravindra Yadav, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), said.

Police seized 140 kg of pseudoephedrine tablets in around 10 lakh strips and 50 kg of pseudoephedrine powder and Rs one lakh cash besides a car.

Daula, a resident of Aizwal, was in Assam Rifles as Warrant Officer General Duty and left the job recently to earn quick money through drug smuggling, Yadav said.

"We arrested all but Bathla from Peeragarhi following investigations into a tip off that one Naresh Gupta is involved in drug peddling. After the questioning of Burmese nationals and th two from Mizoram, we raided Gupta's godown from where Bathla was arrested," he said.

The tablets were recovered from both the car in which the four were travelling as well as from the godown.

"The gang used to procure pseudoephedrine drugs, which are major constituent of cough syrups and tablets from registered pharmaceutical factories situated in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana through local distributors in Delhi.

"These huge quantities of drugs are reprocessed to extract pure pseudo-ephedrine which gets transported to Myanmar and further in order to undergo chemical reconstitution into methamphetamine (Ecstasy or ICE tablets in party circles).

"The consignment was to be sent to Manipur/Mizoram for further smuggling to Myanmar by Mong," Yadav said.

Bathla is a B-Pharma degree holder and working with Gupta for the last about few years. He is having a drug license in the name of his firm Sanjeevani Drugs & Cosmetics.

On the instructions of Gupta, his drug licence was being used to procure Pseudoephedrine tablets from different manufacturers and further handing over the same to Gupta.

Mong and Kham told police that they were staying as refugee in Dabri since 2009 and having a refugee card by UNHCR.