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Three members of the gang have been arrested.

New Delhi:

Being a part of the lucrative movie business was not enough for a Tamil film producer, who chose to mastermind a drug racket that earned his gang nearly Rs 2,000 crore in just three years. 

Officials from the Narcotics Control Bureau said Information was received from customs authorities in New Zealand and the police in Australia that large quantities of pseudoephedrine, a key chemical used to make methamphetamine, were being sent to the countries concealed in desiccated coconut powder or health mixes.  

Methamphetamine, also known as meth or crystal meth, is a drug that is in high demand worldwide, and sells for nearly Rs 1.5 crore a kg in Australia and New Zealand. 

“After inputs from the US Drug Enforcement Administration indicated that the consignments were being sent from Delhi, a joint team of the Delhi police special cell and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) was constituted. After four months of intensive technical and field surveillance, it was learnt that these operatives were in Delhi again and were trying to send another consignment to Australia,” said Gyaneshwar Singh, Deputy Director General, NCB.

Officials said surveillance led them to a godown in West Delhi’s Basai Darapur, where members of the gang were caught trying to conceal pseudoephedrine in a multigrain food mix to smuggle it. Three members of the gang were arrested and 50 kg of the chemical was seized. 

An official said sustained interrogation of the men, who are from Tamil Nadu, revealed that the gang had sent 45 consignments in the past three years, adding up to 3,500 kg of pseudoephedrine, which is worth over Rs 2,000 crore in the international market. 

“The mastermind of the nexus has been identified as a Tamil film producer, who is on the run. We are trying hard to arrest him so that we can find the source of the pseudoephedrine,” an official said. 

The NCB has also reached out to New Zealand and Australian authorities to arrest the people who received the consignments in those countries.