KOLAR: An illegal narcotics laboratory, which was manufacturing and supplying ecstasy pills to drug traffickers operating in Chennai, Hyderabad and other cities, has been busted in Kolar.
While seven accused were arrested from the factory in Mulbagal on Karnataka-Andhra border, two main operators were nabbed when they were selling the pills in Chennai. The mastermind is a pharmacist-turned-drug supplier who was jailed a few years ago.
Kolar district superintendent of police D Devaraj said: “The laboratory-cum-manufacturing unit was located strategically in Mulbagal to facilitate fast movement of narcotic substances to markets in Chennai and Bengaluru. The kingpin had taken a house on rent, telling neighbours he was into granite business when actually he was setting up a drug-manufacturing unit.”
Acting on intelligence inputs from Chennai cops about the drug factory, a Mulbagal police team led by inspector Lakshmikanthaiah swooped down on the house and seized raw materials used for making the psychedelics along with equipment. Police also found remnants of narcotic substances in the house.
Kingpin, a pharmacist, set up lab in Mulbagal
The kingpin has been identified as Ramesh, a pharmacist who had come under police radar after he quit his job in a private company and set up a manufacturing unit in Hyderabad a few years ago. Instead of supplying pharmaceutical items, Ramesh began selling drugs, including ecstasy pills, to dealers in Chennai and Hyderabad. A team from Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducted a raid on Ramesh’s unit and arrested him. He was imprisoned at Chanchalaguda Central Jail for five years.
On getting released, Ramesh shifted operations to Ongole in Andhra Pradesh and started supplying drugs to Chennai through vehicles that carried animal fodder, police said. He used to supply between 10-15kg of ecstasy pills every week to consumers in Chennai.
In January 2021, Chennai police raided Ramesh’s unit in Ongole, but he escaped and went missing.
A couple of months later, Ramesh reportedly called up Fayaz, whom he befriended in Chanchalaguda jail, and asked to meet him in Bengaluru. The duo set up the laboratory in Mulbagal and employed people from Assam, Maharashtra and other states, police added.
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