Drug bust: Bengaluru scientist held in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: In a major

drug

bust,

Narcotics Control Bureau

(NCB) officials have arrested a Bengaluru-based scientist and two others for cooking amphetamine in Hyderabad. The officials also seized 231 kilos of the narcotic substance, worth Rs 45 crore, and Rs 1.23 crore cash from their possession.

The NCB investigators nabbed

Venkat Ramana Rao

, 37, a scientist with a reputed chemical unit in Bengaluru, his wife Preethi, 35, and Venkat's Hyderabad associate Ravi Shankar Rao, 22. On a tip-off, the NCB sleuths apprehended Venkat and Ravi at Miyapur on September 30 while they were travelling in a vehicle and seized 221 kilos of highquality amphetamine powder from their possession. Based on the confession of the duo, the NCB sleuths raided Venkat's house at Hebbagodi near Electronic City in Bengaluru on the same day and seized 10 grams of the contraband along with Rs 1.23 crore cash. The NCB sleuths arrested Venkat's wife Preethi for attempting to hide the cash.

Subsequently, the NCB Subsequently, the NCB team raided the amphetamine manufacturing unit at IDA Bolarum on October 1 and seized 10 kilos of amphetamine from there. The accused were sent to judicial custody on Sunday.

During the investigation, the NCB officials found that the duo had leased a chemical reactor at a factory in IDA Bolarum by informing the owners that they would be manufacturing a drug to cure diarrhoea. “However, instead of making the medicine, the accused were using the reactor to cook amphetamine,“ an NCB official said.

Amphetamine is a potent central nervous system stimulant and used as an aphrodisiac and euphoriant by abusers. It is the parent compound in psychotropic substances like Bupropion, Cathinone, MDMA (Ecstacy) and Methamphetamine. Venkat and Ravi confessed that they were selling amphetamine to overseas clients based in South East Asian and African countries.