CHENNAI: In a major breakthrough during the end-hours of 2024, the Chennai police busted a methamphetamine manufacturing and peddling cartel by arresting 10 people and seizing 17.815kg of methamphetamine, valued at 22 crore in the open market.
Among the arrested is a Class X dropout, who is a meth cook convicted earlier in a ketamine smuggling case.
Besides seizing the high-value contraband from a godown in the Red Hills area, the city anti-narcotics intelligence unit (ANIU) attached assets worth 5 crore.
Police said the key suspect, Lakshmi Narasimhan, arrested by the ANIU team in Madurai, was preparing methamphetamine on the terrace of a house in Virudhunagar since early this year.
Though Narasimhan is a Class X dropout, he acquired the knowledge to prepare the synthetic drug with the help of his associates arrested in the ketamine smuggling case.
Raw material smuggled from Haryana, Myanmar
The first to be arrested were Venkatesan alias Rajesh, and K Karthi, both from Triplicane. The police team seized 1.5kg of methamphetamine, two cars and a two-wheeler from them during their arrest at Madhavaram, said a police officer.
Following the leads provided by them, the ANIU team conducted searches at Venkatesan’s godown in Vadagarai near Red Hills and seized 15.9kg of methamphetamine from him. During questioning, Venkatesan told police that he had earlier been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by the Patiala court in Punjab for smuggling synthetic drugs.
The ANIU, which has so far busted 50 synthetic drug networks, then trailed the network and arrested Venkatesan’s relative Prabhu of Kodungaiyur and Shanmugam of Urapakkam.
The duo smuggled pseudoephedrine (raw material) from Haryana and Myanmar via Manipur to prepare methamphetamine.
Based on the statements of Prabhu and Shanmugam, the ANIU team arrested Sahul Hameed and Lawrence, and seized 128g of methamphetamine. The police team confiscated immovable assets worth ₹5 crore bought by Hameed and Lawrence.
“Further investigations revealed the involvement of Venkatesan’s associates Sarathkumar and his wife Javesa Merida and police seized 157g of methamphetamine from the couple,” said a police officer.
Police said that Lakshmi Narasimhan and another suspect Murugan were preparing methamphetamine from a home laboratory set up in Virudhunagar. Police seized 150g of methamphetamine from the duo.
In total, the ANIU team arrested all 10 suspects, and police seized 17.815kg of methamphetamine and assets worth ₹22 crore.
The arrested suspects were later remanded in judicial custody.
