Drug racket: Buses used to ferry crystal meth

 

The drug is transported to other Asian countries from Chennai port. Manufacturers in Hyderabad make 500 per cent profit from each kg of meth they smuggle out of the country, sources said. 

There are around 30 AC and non-AC buses plying to Chennai every day from Hyderabad and passengers’ luggage is never checked. Hundreds of kilos of drugs can thus be easily smuggled without attracting the attention of enforcement agencies.

 

“When we arrested a gangster he was on way to Chennai. He had booked a bus ticket and was planning to take the drugs in his luggage. He confessed that this was the way drug racketeers transported drugs from one state to another,” said Mr E. Ramchandra Reddy, Cyberabad SOT chief. 

The ingredients for making meth usually come to Hyderabad from other states the same way. “Sometimes around 100 kg of chemicals like ephedrine is smuggled into the city in buses from Chennai and Maharashtra,” a source said.

 

Private bus operators are usually not aware of the smuggling since they do not check the luggage of passengers. However, some bus operators are hand in glove with the racketeers, police said. 

Meanwhile, cops said that it’s impossible to check each and every bus leaving Hyderabad. “We catch smugglers through tip offs. Some gangs even use common couriers to transport the drugs,” said an SOT official.

 

Southeast Asian drug cartels are using the outskirts of Hyderabad to manufacture drugs, sources said. Secret labs are active in industrial villages where enforcement agencies are not present. Cops say that meth smuggled from Hyderabad is given finishing touches when it reaches Malaysia and Singapore.