Drug bust: Hunt on to nab cook of amphetamine

HYDERABAD:Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sleuths are on the hunt to nab the cook of the Rs 231-crore worth amphetamine seized from Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
On in terrogation of the arrested culprits, Venkata Rama Rao, 34, a scientist working with a reputed chemical firm in Bengaluru, and Ravi Shankar Rao, 22, an undergraduate student from Hyderabad, the NCB sleuths discovered that the chemical reactor at Trident Finechem & Labs at IDA Bolarum was taken on lease by Ravi Shankar Rao's brother Raju alias Ramu and his associate.
“Ravi's brother, who is the cook of meth at Trident Finechem, is on the run. We have two persons in custody , including Indian Air Force wing commander Rajasekhar Reddy , and they are being grilled to get details about the absconding members of the network,“ an NCB official from Hyderabad said. The culprits had taken the chemical reactor at Trident Finechem on lease by informing the factory management that they were going to manufacture a medicine for diarrhoea.
They also confessed that they had been manufacturing amphetamine for the past eight months at the IDA Bolarum facility and even sold the contraband consignments multiple times to customers. “In the past three months, Venkat had delivered amphetamine to customers four times,“ NCB sources said. Venkat told the interrogators that they were selling amphetamine to peddlers for Rs 18 lakh to Rs 20 lakh a kilo. “The Rs 1.23 crore cash seized at Venkat's residence in Bengaluru appears to be advance payment given by prospective customers for delivery of 231 kilos of amphetamine. As per the preliminary information, amphetamine is being shipped out of the country from Chennai,“ an investigating official said.
NCB sleuths of Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru were now interrogating the accused and the suspects to zero in on the purchasers of amphetamine.