Chennai: In a prize catch just before the New Year, the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Crime Branch, Mumbai busted an international drug peddling racket with the arrest of four persons and confiscated 100 kilograms of fentanyl, also known as ‘the horror drug’, worth Rs 1,000 crore, in Vakola, Santacruz (East).

Sources claimed that the drug was to be distributed in some South Indian states, including Tamilnadu.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used as a pain medication, especially for cancer, but it is also made illegally in clandestine labs for sale as a recreational drug by mixing with heroin or cocaine.

The Anti-Narcotics cell, based on a tip off, arrested Salim Ismail Dhala (52), Dhanshyam Ramraj Saroj (43) and brothers Chandramani Tiwari (41) and Sandeep Tiwari (38).

The police seized four containers each weighing 25 kilograms from the boot of their car. The men however claimed that the consignment was to be handed over to some foreigner who was to take it to USA. They also claimed the substance was not a banned chemical and they had the invoice for the purchases.

Police said that the seized substance was a banned drug under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS). One kilogram of the drug reportedly sells for Rs 10 crore in the international market.

The accused were produced before court and remanded to police custody till 1 January, 2019.
Of the four men, Dhala was previously arrested in a drug-related cases by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Delhi.