Closer look at Police crackdowns on foreign-run meth labs in Greater Noida

Over the past year, police in Greater Noida have dismantled three methamphetamine labs set up by foreigners inside rented accommodations, seizing over 100 kg of drugs worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

The most recent raid, conducted on April 17, led to the arrest of four Nigerian nationals and the seizure of 26.67 kg of methylenedioxyphenethylamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy, with an estimated street value of Rs 100 crore.

Earlier raids on May 16 and May 30 of the previous year uncovered over 75 kg of MDMA in two separate but connected operations. These raids resulted in the arrest of about a dozen foreigners from residential houses where proper labs were set up for cooking meth. The combined street value of the seized drugs was estimated to be over Rs 350 crore, according to police.

These recoveries could be just the "tip of the iceberg" of an international drug syndicate, police said. In all these incidents, they found that meth in "pure form" was cooked by foreigners who worked in the lower rung of the syndicate.