NCB freezes Rs 9.20 crore assets in international drugs trafficking racket involving Mexican cartel

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday said it has attached a flat and a factory premises worth Rs 9.20 crore in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida of a “prime” accused involved in a 2024 trans-national drugs trafficking case linked to a Mexican cartel.

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The federal anti-narcotics agency said in a statement that it has recently secured a confirmation on the attachment from the designated competent authority and administrator constituted under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA) and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The case pertains to the seizure of over 95 kg of Amphetamine and the unearthing of a clandestine narcotics manufacturing laboratory in Noida near Delhi in October last year.

Five people, including a Tihar Jail warden, a Mexican national part of a drug cartel operating from that country, a Mumbai-based chemist and two Delhi-based businessmen, were arrested by the NCB then.

The agency, as part of the probe, attached immovable assets of one of the accused businessmen, also a “prime accused” in the case, worth Rs 9.20 crore.

This included a luxury apartment in Jaypee Greens residential society and a factory premises in Kasna Industrial Area of Gautam Budh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh), which were “acquired using proceeds from international narcotics trafficking,” the NCB said.

The NCB and the Special Cell of the Delhi Police had jointly busted the factory.

The syndicate, including the five arrested people, was involved in “transnational smuggling” of synthetic drugs. All the arrested are presently lodged in jail under judicial custody, the agency said.

The factory was “financed” by the CJNG—Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion—a notorious Mexican cartel, which transferred money to Dubai using cryptocurrency, it claimed.

“The amount was then received in Delhi in cash by the accused through hawala, facilitated in three separate instalments,” the NCB said.