Dehradun

Police here busted a factory engaged in cooking the drug MDMA Nanakmatta area of Udham Singh Nagar district and arrested the man operating it, an officer said on Tuesday.

Uttarakhand Director General of Police Deepam Seth told reporters here that the bust was made by a joint team of the Kumaon unit of the STF's Anti-Narcotics Task Force and Pithoragarh, Champawat, and Udham Singh Nagar police.

The team thus unearthed an international gang spread from Mumbai to Nepal, seizing a large consignment of banned 'precursor' chemicals used in making MDMA.

He said that Kunal Ram Kohli, the brain behind the factory on Sahni Nursery Tiraha, was also arrested in the Monday raid.

Seth said that 126 liters of chemicals, 28 kg of powder, and 7.41 grams of prepared MDMA were recovered from the factory.

Senior Superintendent of Police of Uttarakhand STF, Navneet Singh Bhullar, said that on May 31 this year, two suspected drug smugglers were arrested in Thane, Maharashtra, and 11 grams of MDMA was recovered from them.

Bhullar said that during interrogation, the two revealed the presence of an MDMA factory being run by Monu Gupta and Kunal Kohli in the Thal area of Pithoragarh district on the Uttarakhand-Nepal border, from where they supply drugs to other states, including Mumbai.

On this information, Thane and Pithoragarh police raided the factory, which was being run under the guise of a poultry farm in Thal on June 26, from where they recovered 'precursor' chemicals, but no person was found.

Bhullar said that although the Thane police later arrested Monu Gupta, along with his two accomplices, Bhim Yadav and Aman Kohli, from the Palia-Nepal border in Lakhimpur Kheri of Uttar Pradesh, Kunal Kohli remained at large, having fled to Nepal, along with his accomplices, Rahul Kumar and Vikram.

Meanwhile, police arrested Rahul Kumar's wife, Isha, from near Sharda canal in Banbasa, Champawat, on July 11.

She was on his way to throw 5.688 kg of MDMA worth Rs 10.23 crore into the canal on the instructions of her husband when she was nabbed.

During interrogation, she gave up her husband, who was arrested by Champawat police.

Kohli, meanwhile, had been absconding in a case registered under the NDPS Act in Thane, besides Banbasa.

About six kg of MDMA was to be manufactured from the 'precursor' chemicals were recovered at his instance. The final drug was expected to fetch Rs 12 crore in the international market.

During interrogation, Kohli told police that when his Pithoragarh factory was exposed, he shifted the affair to Nanakmatta.

Bhullar said action will also be taken against the companies from which the chemicals for MDMA were procured.

Seth has announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to the police team involved in the action.

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"It is being ascertained how these people are earning money from the drug business and in which activity they are investing this money. The properties acquired from this illegal income are being seized," he added.